*Chapter 197: [ Spear of Longinus] (Third Update)*

Atreus said word by word, "I want [Spear of Longinus]!"

"What do you need that for?" Athena became suddenly alert.

"To deal with Ares! Anyway, that thing has nothing to do with gods of Olympus. If I succeed in killing Ares, then I ask that gods of Olympus acknowledge it as mine."

 [Spear of Longinus] is spear that pierced Jesus Christ. According to Bible, when Jesus was nailed to cross, a centurion pierced his side with a spear. This centurion was named Longinus.

Undoubtedly, this is a weapon specialized for killing gods.

Normally, whoever wields it will find it too hot to handle.

Killing a god isn’t easy.

One wrong move, and god-killer will be hunted down by a god, or even entire pantheon, much like in plot of Thor 4. Gods have their own rules, and a non-divine being who kills a god is likely to be targeted.

If Diana, daughter of Zeus, were to kill Ares on Zeus’s orders, that would be an internal matter for gods.

But Atreus, a half-god without divine blood, would face wrath of Olympus if he succeeded in killing Ares, with gods likely turning against him.

Before Atreus's journey, many people had heard of [Spear of Longinus], but few knew full story—when Jesus' blood fell into Longinus’s eyes, he was immediately converted. He abandoned his former life, became a monk, and gained ability to perform miracles. He was later canonized as a saint, known as "Saint Longinus."

By borrowing this spear, Atreus was essentially seeking legitimacy from gods of Olympus—if he failed, they could distance themselves from it, but if he succeeded, they would have to recognize him as one of their own.

Athena pondered for a moment and then smiled. "If you obtain [Spear of Longinus], I can lend you [Aegis]."

Atreus was taken aback but quickly realized her plan.

Brilliant!

She was truly brilliant! Athena had never been a naive goddess.

This move highlighted her millennia of experience.

If Atreus got god-slaying spear, and Athena gave him her divine shield, should he fail, she could still say—"That damn god-slayer Atreus wounded me and stole my shield, Aegis."

Ha! What clever thinking!

But this was also Athena's bottom line.

Knowing he couldn't push further, Atreus raised his left hand, and an illusory divine contract appeared in midair.

Athena was surprised that Atreus, a half-god outsider, could produce a contract with power to bind divine laws. Shocked, she carefully scrutinized contract with her divine sense.

"Change this. My divine power cannot be used against any Olympian god other than Ares."

Olympian gods refer to formal deities, not including minor gods but encompassing main gods.

"Fine!" Atreus didn’t hesitate, as this was already part of deal.

After Athena quickly signed contract, a system notification appeared.

[Congratulations, Host, for receiving power boost of Athena, Goddess of War: +80 Agility, +225 Intelligence, +181 Willpower.]

[Host has received Athena’s Blessing of Victory: In situations requiring checks, success rate increases by 50%!]

[Host has received Athena’s Domain Boost: In ocean and sky, all attacks and defenses receive bonuses based on concentration of water and air elements in region.]

[Host’s healing effects are increased by 100%!]

Though Atreus knew Athena had many divine domains, and she had a hand in most of them, he was still shocked to receive so many boosts just from signing a contract.

And it wasn’t just Atreus who was shocked!

For Athena to grant him such power, she had to have attributes far superior to Atreus's. Yet, moment she signed contract, she realized that her physique and strength weren’t much higher than Atreus’s—if at all.

As a main god, this meant that Atreus’s resilience and strength already surpassed most ordinary Olympian gods.

Creating a god-slayer out of a mere mortal body—this Kratos was a monster, with potential beyond imagination!

However, Athena had no regrets and didn’t fear nurturing a future threat.

No matter what kind of power Kratos gained, he wasn’t irrational like Ares, madman.

Even if Kratos replaced Ares as God of War, so what?

Things wouldn’t be worse than they were now.

Thus, Athena secured a weapon against Ares, and Atreus found a path to ascend.

"Alright! I’m tired. Notify me if there’s any news," Athena waved her hand, and lush olive tree miraculously rewound, shrinking back into a small holy olive seed, which flew into Atreus’s hand.

With that, cross-dimensional deal was completed.

Atreus let out a long sigh of relief.

"Has she left?" Penthesilea whispered.

"Yes," Atreus replied.

Diana grumbled in dissatisfaction, "You should’ve given us a heads-up first."

"If I had warned you, would your reaction have been any different?"

Diana fell silent. She had her reasons, and Atreus had his. They came from different worlds, and aligning their goals to challenge a powerful true god wasn’t easy.

Fresh out of Paradise Island, she might have been that naive.

After spending time in modern human society, finding someone like Atreus, who was still willing to help, was a rare thing.

She understood that Atreus did this to increase his chances of killing Ares. Maybe he had his own selfish motives, but who didn’t?

As long as their goals aligned, that was enough.

Wonder Woman shrugged and relented. "Alright, I don’t want a repeat of this."

"Don’t worry, aside from Athena, no other god will want to join fight against Ares."

"So, what’s our next move?" Penthesilea pointed to scene outside mirror. A squad of guards had started searching. Of course, they couldn’t sense four people inside mirror space; they were searching for missing [Jusleigos], who had entered Mycenaean temple and then vanished.

Atreus casually opened a portal. "Ladies, after you—"

 searchers, of course, found nothing. As mere mortals, they couldn’t imagine that an extraordinary being had used spatial coordinates Athena provided to directly teleport to Austria.

Meanwhile, news of someone trespassing on Acropolis of Athens was quickly reported to Emperor Menelaus.

At first, His Majesty thought it was a trivial matter involving his brother’s descendants. But as soon as he saw sketches of four, he couldn’t tear his gaze away.

Despite inaccuracies of sketches, certain details—especially in their attire—were unforgettable for him.

Just from that aura, he had a fifty-percent certainty of who masked beauty in drawing was.

"Helen..."

(End of Chapter)