Capítulo 19: short lived duel
Apollo enjoyed the wind as it hit his face while his carriage was pulled by an army of swans, it has been 7 days since he and his sister have set out to find the oracle and so far there has been no clue about where it should be but Apollo, as someone familiar with it knows how to find it so he is simply taking his leisure time with the search but his sister on the other hand didn't like how things were going.
"where are you taking us now?"
She asked with a frown on her face, her arms were crossed and her tone of voice indicated that she was not pleased, Apollo so far has taken them on a wild goose chase that has Yielded no tangible results and her patients was running dry, of course she figured it would take a good while to find something like the oracle and Apollo did say it took him months to find it back in his younger days so it was a given that it would take a while but it didn't seem like Apollo was actually looking for it.
"The isle where I was born?"
"Why? Will that bring us closer to finding the oracle?"
"Yes"
"Do not lie to me Apollo, for the past 7 days all we have done was visit the dwellings of humans and dilly dally doing useless things like fighting a Scylla for absolutely no reason, why are you delaying our search for the Oracle?"
She asked, while it was all well and good to visit some human dwellings —she even got to see some of her cult followers—and the dilly dally did get Ares off their backs since he was tailing them when they left Olympus but that was 3 days ago, there was no longer any purpose in wasting time since Ares probably got fed up and left them to look for the Oracle on his own.
"Sister, I assure you that I am looking for the Oracle, it's more about the intent of looking for it than it is about finding it"
"Why is that?"
"it's because only time can have the oracle and in order to find it, you need to spend some time looking for it and it will appear or rather Chronos will decide if whether or not you can have it after observing you for a while if he feels like it, so this could either take years, months or even days. As the personification of time itself the concept of time doesn't mean much to him, so as long as you don't give up looking for it he'll eventually give it to you"
Apollo explained, Chronos the titan of time was the one who held the oracle, the reason no one person could have it for more than a few days was because Chronos took it from them. Athena understood his explanation and heaved an exasperated sigh, so it really was a wild moose chase after all.
"so this really was a waste of time?"
"essentially"
With that said the two if them traveled in silence, with Athena looking even more displeased than before, she had realized that she didn't need to be here nor was her assistance necessary and she just has to deal with it until they find the oracle but it was important to follow her father's orders.
After a few minutes of traveling in air, their noses were suddenly assaulted by the fragrance of Ambrosia and they began hearing the calls of the swans. The floating isle of Delos was now within view and after a few minutes they arrived and set foot on the island.
"The island is still made of gold? Why didn't you undo it?"
When Apollo was born the entire island of Delos was turned into gold, and it was filled with the fragrance of Ambrosia, swans became common place on the island.
"Why would I do that? This is my birth place, it being gold means it holds more value than your average island as it should"
" what should we do now? "look" for the oracle or what"
"Because our intention is to find the oracle, as long as we keep that intent everything we do is taken as look—"
"You know it would have been more fun if you strung her along making her fed up wasting her Time than to simply giving her the information she needs"
Apollo's words were interrupted by the sudden booming of a voice that seemed to come from All over their surroundings, Athena was immediately put on guard, she quickly materialized her spear and stood at the ready for an attack. Apollo on the other hand was relaxed infact he heaved a sigh of relief and was thankful that it was only 7 days.
"now I can't derive enjoyment out of it, your ruined my fun Time, Apollo"
The voice continued to speak while a body Made of flesh and bones materialized itself before them and further putting Athena on edge causing her on grasp her spear tighter and kept her senses sharp focusing on this new arrival.
As the body fully materialized Apollo took a bow and greeted the newly arrived titan.
"Greetings Lord Chronos, I hope you are well"
"Only Time can tell if I am"
"so only you can tell if you are well"
The two exchanged words while Athena observed them, by the looks of it he wasn't an enemy and he wasn't going to attack however she wasn't about to Drop her guard, plus she needed to quickly incapacitate Apollo the moment he is handed the oracle. She walked closer to her brother before she cautiously spoke, addressing Chronos.
"greetings to you Lord Chronos, I am Athena sister to Apollo, It is a pleasure to meet you"
Things made sense now, after all only the personification of time would have the right to have some thing that could fore tell the future as that was within his Domain, She has never really met him before so she had no idea what he looked like or his voice however she heard that he was among the few that didn't participate in the war against her grandfather.
"it was about Time you introduced yourself, daughter of Zeus and grandchild of Cronus"
The man was tall with a thick curly beard and hair, he wasn't at all muscular but he did have quite the big and tall frame, he towered over both her and Apollo, his eyes pure white no pupils, his voice was deep and had a strange echo almost as if it was delayed before reaching her ears.
"I take it it's time for you to give us the oracle?"
"initially I was going to give to you in about two weeks of time but considering what will happen in 3 2 1"
Before the two could be surprised by the sudden Count down Apollo felt a sudden force collide with his face sending him flying off into the distance onto a bunch of trees. Athena the quick thinker that she was blocked an attack at her stomach but the force was greater than she Anticipated and she was sent flying off the island at great speeds and landing on to the ocean somewhere.
"Lord Chronos Give me the oracle"
It was Ares who had suddenly appeared before Chronos, his skin was tanned and his eyes a dark red, his muscles were much bigger than they usually are.
"What perfect Timing you have, perhaps maybe next Time I might give it to you but not right this Time"
"Then I will take it from you"
"your brother says otherwise"
A punch straight to Ares face sent him Staggering a few steps back, Apollo was already back on his feet ready for a fight. The young God was not pleased by getting sucker punched.
"you didn't really think, a sneak attack like that would be enough did you?"
"No I did not, and thanks"
Ares moved fast delivering a powerful punch at Apollo's stomach causing the young God to cough up wads of saliva before his feet took off the ground and he floated mid air, Ares then grabbed him by the legs, slammed him onto the golden surface of Delos making a small crater and swung his brother Around before throwing him off the island and somewhere onto the sea, leaving him and Chronos as the only ones on the island.
"Now then—"
"Well brother, I have to commend you for using that pea sized brain of yours and finally scored an advantage over me"
Athena clapped her hands as she floated in the air, She was aware that Ares has been following them for 3 days but she suddenly stopped sensing his presence and considering how much of a waste of time every thing else was she figured he must have stopped following them and decided to look for the Oracle all on his own, he was the impatient type so it was likely he got fed up with Apollo's dilly dallying early on and left.
"damn!!!"
Ares cursed, The reason he specifically put a lot of strength in punching Athena off the Island was because he needed time to deal with Apollo then get the oracle before she could come back but it looks like he made a mistake.
"Right? I mean it would have been better to kick me off first then deal with Apollo and since I was already on guard, punching Apollo first allowed me plenty of time to recover from the suddenness of the situation and allowed me to block your attack. I suppose I was too occupied with being on guard against Chronos that you slipped past my senses and got the drop on us"
Athena explained, as she stared down from above, he did not need to explain himself nor as it was blatantly clear why he was doing this, She wasn't pleased by this, he was making things complicated but then again with him as a prime suspect now the chances of her being a suspect are drastically decreased, now She just needs to play her part.
"well this is an interesting moment in time, I was going to ask for something in return since Apollo spoiled my fun but this should suffice"
Chronos voiced his thoughts, there was a smile on his face as he watched the Two siblings, it seemed that Ouranos's family was quite prone to violence or rather how many times will the same thing repeat itself? Now It was 3 instead of 1. He shook his head before speaking again.
" Who ever wins gets the Oracle"
Was all he said before he elevated himself higher to get a good view of what's to come, He didn't really bother looking at the future anymore after all knowing the past, present and future was boring, better let people try and see those things themselves and just watch them as they try to delay the inevitable though in this case with Zeus's children it was quite complicated but interesting nonetheless.
Athena descended and set foot on to the ground, the two sized each other up. They have fought plenty before, with Athena being on the lead when it comes to the win Ratio but Ares Was no slouch either, battle is his playground, both he and Athena may be Gods of war but Ares was the brawn while she was the brain, it was because of this that that he believed himself to be her better in terms of Brute strength however fighting Athena was never a matter of Brute strength, unfortunately for her he has just the thing to ensure his victory.
Athena on the other hand carefully stared at her brother, she may think of him as stupid but being careless would be foolish. The both of them Share the concept of war however while Ares strength is increased by Being in a physical conflict, Athena's strength doesn't increase but rather her wisdom is steadily increased throughout the conflict and thus the longer the fight continues the more of an advantage she gains.
"I must say it has been a while since I've had to fight you physically, a year maybe? Or is it 3?"
She questioned, her posture was relaxed and her breath steady, there was no need to be worked up, cautious? Yes but no need of anything else, she had dematerialized Her spear before setting foot on the floor, not because she underestimated him but because she believed it wasn't needed, at least not yet.
"Doesn't matter it's no—"
Ares was interrupted mid sentence by a devastating knee to his jaw, the knee kick had enough force on it to send Ares crashing through multiple trees and clearing a small section of the golden forest in Delos. The island of Delos was quite large infact most Islands in the world were large nearly as big as an entire country
Apollo had made it back and it was hardly 20 seconds since Ares threw him off the island, the fact that it took him that long to get back means that Ares must have thrown him pretty far.
"WRAAAAHH"
Ares burst forth from beneath the ruble of trees and sprung himself forth towards Apollo, his anger was apparent as he let out a roar. He was close to getting the thing that would ensure that his plans go smoothly and he wasn't about to have Apollo or Athena stop him.
As Ares and Apollo engaged in combat, Athena furrowed her brow she had thought Ares would be good at knocking people out but he couldn't incapacitate Apollo for even a minute.
"Something the matter? You seem displeased"
"Not in particular, I don't suppose you could give me the oracle without a need for me to fight?"
"Not unless you have something that can entertain me better than two fools fighting"
Apollo was relentless as he rained down punch after punch at Ares's face who had been laid down flat, unfortunately for Apollo Ares was taking no damage at all, each punch he received had enough force to cause an earthquake, causing the island of Delos to shake with each blow but Ares took those blows with no damage at all, instead a smile was etched on to his face.
He grabbed Apollo's hands pulled him towards himself and then gave him a head-butt so powerful it caused the ichor to flow from within Apollo's nose, Ares had cracked the Young god's skull
"Did you forget little brother? I specialize in combat you'll never win"
He said and tossed Apollo to the side and stood up while cracking his neck like one would usually do after a warm up. He was about to leave but Apollo was already on his feet he wiped the golden blood from his nose and spit out a mouthful of saliva mixed with the blood as well.
"Did you forget brother? I am stronger than you"
"You—"
"DRUM BEAT"
At the clap of his hand, the sound of a drum reached Ares's ears before an explosion at his head sent him tumbling back multiple meters, his face was now the one leaking blood. Another clap from Apollo sent him back again. Apollo had tapped into his divinity and used one of the multiple concepts under his domain, music. He continued to cause Ares face to explode until the God could no longer stand and his face was covered in ichor. He turned and walked towards Athena and Chronos, convinced of his victory
"it seems like he won"
"what a fool, that's no way to defeat Ares"
Athena voiced, Apollo had the greatest potential amongst Zeus's Children, the multiple concepts in his domain made him a force to be reckoned with despite being the youngest, it was because of this that he believed himself to be the strongest amongst his siblings because he wasn't limited to only 1 or 3 concepts he had many, unfortunately for him he wasn't the strongest not at all, he had the greatest potential but was hardly the strongest.
Apollo suddenly found himself getting grabbed by his torso from behind, almost like a hug. He was then lifted up causing his line of sight to look towards the sky before he was slammed head first on the Ground with such force that the island of Delos nearly split in two and Apollo was successfully knocked out.
"Foolish little brother, did you not hear what I said"
Ares cracked his neck once more and moved towards Athena, no doubt she was going to be a real pain in the buttocks to deal with that was if he didn't have anything to deal with her but it should be a hassle regardless, he'll need to end the battle fast before she could catch on. He's definitely going to need a stress reliever after this, he'll stop by Aphrodite's place before going down and visiting Her.
'No I should visit her before going to see Aphrodite to avoid suspicion
....
A/N:did you like the fight? Got anyways I can make fight scenes better? Please offer your suggestions
anyway how about that season finale of demon slayer eh? crazy stuff, didn't actually watch but I did read the manga.
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