Chapter 1064: Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey [Monthly Bonus 3]

When Athena emerged from a spatial gate at the location Persephone had specified, she found herself in a field of sunflowers. In the centre of that field was a marble gazebo, and seated at a table under it was Persephone.

Athena walked over to the gazebo, took the seat opposite Persephone, and asked, "Where is this person?"

Persephone looked up at Athena in silence for a moment before replying, "They’re on their way. I don’t know what they’re doing, but they went to Echidna’s territory for something."

The mention of Echidna, the Queen of all Olympian ’monsters’, made Athena frown, and seeing that expression, Persephone immediately raised a hand.

"Don’t ask me. I have no idea what they’re doing with Echidna," she said, knowing that was exactly what Athena was about to ask.

Athena swallowed the question that had almost left her lips before asking something else.

"Then how exactly did you come into contact with this person?"

Persephone placed a finger against her chin before answering.

"Well, I went to watch one of the spring festivals held in my honour on some random planet, and they slipped into the festival and approached me while I was there.

I won’t lie, this didn’t happen recently. It happened before the war started. They told me they intended to contact you, but they never explained why until today."

She paused for a moment after saying that before asking a question.

"Exactly what is this business with the Akashic Records that’s important enough to make you leave Dodekapolis at a time like this?"

Athena quietly shook her head before muttering, "I’m afraid that’s something I can’t tell even you."

Just as she finished speaking, an unfamiliar voice echoed nearby.

"Can’t tell her? You two sharing secrets or something?"

Athena immediately spun around, her eyes widening at the presence that suddenly appeared within her perception.

A man dressed entirely in black was now standing a few meters behind her. He wore nothing more than a simple shirt, trousers, and sneakers.

What immediately caught Athena’s attention, however, was the strange fog covering his face, preventing her from seeing what he looked like.

Noticing her narrowed eyes, the man pointed at the fog and said, "Ah, sorry about this. I have to use it."

He paused for a moment before waving his hands around.

"Uh... some wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff is going on. It’s going to mess with time if you, um, know what I look like, so... yeah."

"Time?" Athena muttered, her wariness rising another level.

Whether the man noticed or not, he didn’t seem to care as he nodded.

"Yep. Time."

He snapped his fingers, and in an instant, the entire world became monochrome.

"I am a time manipulator, after all."

He snapped his fingers again, and colour returned as time resumed its normal flow. Then, without Athena detecting the slightest trace of spatial energy, he casually teleported beside Persephone and squeezed onto the same seat with her.

"Thanks for bringing her here," he said.

Persephone simply rolled her eyes.

"Get off my seat," she said, raising a hand to try and shove him off. When she saw he didn’t budge, however, she clicked her tongue and got up instead. "I’ll leave you two to discuss whatever it is you want. I’m leaving."

Before Athena could say anything, Persephone vanished.

The man casually waved in the direction she’d disappeared before turning back to Athena, who was staring at him with unconcealed suspicion.

"Now then, my dear goddess of wisdom, shall we talk?"

"Who are you, and what do you want?"

The man waved a hand dismissively in response to Athena’s question.

"I just told you I can’t tell you who I am, didn’t I? As for what I want, I can tell you that."

He lowered his hand onto the table, tapping it repeatedly as he continued.

"I have certain...goals? Yeah, let’s just call them that. I have certain goals I want to accomplish, and while pursuing those goals, I came across something I knew you’d definitely be interested in. Something you wouldn’t want anybody finding out that you’d lost."

Athena’s expression didn’t change at those words, and seeing that, the man snapped the fingers of his left hand, causing a familiar artifact to appear above his palm.

But despite seeing him casually summon the Akashic Records of the Olympus Universe right before her, Athena didn’t immediately reach for them.

"Oh, you’re a little calmer than I expected," the man said, noticing her lack of reaction. "I was honestly prepared for this to turn into a fight, but it’s good that you’re calm and reasonable enough to talk."

He placed the Akashic Records on the table before continuing, "So, goddess of wisdom, I’ll return this to you since I can’t use it anyway. I’m not Olympian."

A moment later, he tilted his head.

"Wait. Technically, I am part Olympian, since my father is a god from Olympus. I guess you can infer from that little titbit that I’m some sort of demigod."

He lifted his hand away from the Akashic Records before continuing,

"But anyway, onto the more important things. As I was saying, I don’t have any use for this because I don’t have the necessary Authorities, and this thing’s never going to choose me.

So, I want to give it back to you, but in return for finding something that you lost, I want a favour. A favour worth this Akashic Record, or a bunch of smaller favours that, when put together, are worth the value of the Akashic Record."

Athena glanced at the Akashic Record on the table before looking back at the man whose face was concealed by fog.

"How did you get your hands on this?" she asked calmly.

"Well, I can tell you that," the man replied with a shrug. "I was in another universe when I got attacked by a bunch of gods from different universes, and I killed all of them. One of them, however, had this on him, so I took it. The thing is, I don’t know exactly which universes the gods that attacked me came from.

I do know some of them were Olympians, but the one carrying this was definitely not Olympian. I’m pretty damn sure he wasn’t."

Hearing his answer, Athena clicked her tongue inwardly.

’He’s saying a lot while revealing very little at the same time.’

She understood exactly what the man was doing, so instead of dwelling on his answer, she asked something else.

"Persephone told me you’ve wanted to contact me since over a century ago. Why now?"

The man seemed to be surprised by this.

"She even told you that? Oh well, I’m not too surprised. You two are close friends anyway.

But yeah, that’s true. I did want to contact you over a century ago, but I was kind of injured back then. After I got injured, I needed time to recover and boost my strength a little, so I couldn’t exactly contact you then.

Before I knew it, a century had passed. Then I heard about everything going on with the war right now, and I was like, whoa, things are getting serious.

At the same time, I thought, wouldn’t this be the perfect opportunity to use that card I’ve been holding onto for over a century? So I asked her to bring you here now."

After saying that, he tapped the Akashic Record again.

"So? What’s your response to my offer? I can even throw in a few clauses that’ll be favourable to you. For example..."

He leaned to one side of the table, then the other, before snapping his fingers.

"Aha! We can include something like, whatever I ask of you won’t be harmful to Olympus. Because what I want to ask of you does concern Olympus a little, but it’s mainly another universe’s problem."

So yeah, I guess it won’t be harmful to Olympus. I can’t willingly ask you to do anything that I know will directly harm Olympus. Yeah, let’s phrase it like that."

His tone and demeanour made it seem as if he wasn’t entirely sure of what he was saying, but Athena didn’t believe it for even a second.

"What exactly do you want to ask of me?" Athena asked.

"Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff," the man replied, waving his hands around again. "I can’t say it now. I can only tell you when the time comes for me to ask. The most I can say right now is that it concerns your strength.

Not your combat strength, though. I’m not going to use you to fight a war or anything. The strength I’m talking about is your famed wisdom. Your unique Authority and your use of the artifact on the table might also come into play."

After saying that, he rubbed his chin before adding,

"Ah, right. It’s also going to involve getting rid of someone. But the person you’re getting rid of isn’t someone who’d benefit Olympus in any way. If anything, I think they might actually become a threat to Olympus.

So I’m technically doing you all a favour? I’m returning your Akashic Records in exchange for a favour that’ll also remove a potential threat. Man, am I some hero of justice or something?"

He laughed to himself before leaning forward.

"So, what do you say, goddess of wisdom? Do you agree to my terms? If you do, we’ll seal it with a contract. A soul-binding contract or a blood contract or whatever. Something that ensures neither of us can break the agreement.

And, uh, I’ll probably have to include a little clause saying you can’t investigate me to find out who I am. Because, well, you’ll find nothing, and I’m going to be leaving this universe very, very soon."

Athena didn’t respond right away, and the man seemed to have expected as much. Even so, he drummed his fingers on the table as he urged her to make a decision quickly.

"The clock’s ticking, Athena. You don’t want anyone finding out you lost the Akashic Records, do you?

Well, I’ll have you know I’m very confident in my ability to leave here with it, even if you try to stop me. And it wouldn’t be nice if people found out about that now, would it? So, how about we just make a deal?"

The man was holding an extremely effective weakness over Athena, information she simply couldn’t allow to become public, and he was exploiting it in the most efficient way possible.

Athena naturally realised that.

She weighed her options, considered the timing of his offer, and everything pointed toward accepting it as the most efficient way to deal with this situation.

After all, she had no idea how strong the man truly was. She couldn’t sense the depth of his power, and she wasn’t about to start a fight against someone whose strength she couldn’t judge when there was a peaceful solution that would get her what she wanted, even if it required making a few concessions.

After thinking it through, she finally spoke.

"Fine. I’ll agree to your offer, but with certain conditions."

Hearing that she wanted to add conditions of her own, the man didn’t seem surprised. In fact, he welcomed it.

"That’s fine. I’d actually be more suspicious if you didn’t have any conditions to add. Let’s hear them. I might not agree to everything, but I’m sure we can reach a compromise."

◇　◇　◇

After a surprisingly quick discussion, Athena left the planet with the Akashic Records.

Shortly after she departed, Persephone appeared in the now empty seat Athena had occupied before asking, "How did you get your hands on that?"

Hearing the question, the man reached up and pulled the fog covering his face away like a curtain before replying, "Well, it’s exactly as I told her. I was attacked by gods from other universes, and one of them had it on him."

Getting up from his seat, he turned around before saying, "Now then, the first seed has been planted."

Spreading his arms lightly, he laughed.

"Let the cameras begin rolling. Phase Two of The Script begins now."