Aphrodite stares. He stares in...

In shame.

Shame. Impossible. The limits of his power revealed. He, the last remnant of Kronus, the father of all, maker of the universe revealed as nothing more than a [i]bad idea[/i]. An idea that can be analyzed, considered, and rejected. To have the infinities inside him seen, considered and discarded. What is his recourse? To beg? To argue? With this [i]mud [/i]that Zeus breathed into? This is nothing more than a little statue, a miniature, a toy person to be made to kiss and fight and be packed away in foam at the end of the day, a toy whose value is in its ability to win games against other real people. [i]His[/i] piece! His piece on the board, the one he would use to ruin Persephone's hideous little world! It didn't get a say! 

Words spill from his lips, but they don't contain meaning - they spill like blood, pouring from the open wound in his psyche. They stutter and garble and splash, resolving into a scream as they fail to staunch the bleeding. There is only one path. Only one path to control.

He snatches Nero's golden Nemesis crown from her head and places it upon his own. And Aphrodite steps down from Olympus. All the galaxies he reaches across, all his trillions of champions, all the universe's craving and desire is left behind as he strides into the physical world. The shock of his presence ripples out in corrupt pink and red lightning, snatching out to catch onto the fires of the burning Imperial Palace. All of his divine glory was a limitation to him anyway; all his weapons and influence and tools could not get him [i]what he wanted[/i] and so he leaves them behind without a care. His pretty face and his silver tongue were not fit for purpose. What he wanted was...

What he wanted was a form of violence.

"Don't speak to me like that," said Aphrodite, your father.

And at last, you see the family resemblance.

You see the claws. The bone plates. The monstrous shifting jaws. The predatory hunch. The terrible violence of Bella's true Assassin form, expanded out to monstrous size and untempered by the soft and gentle genetics of mortality. 

[i]"Don't look at me like that!"[/i] It screams, and all the walls come tumbling down.

Nero moves first, crackling with the speed of Hermes. She breaks from her trance and strikes the beast in the neck with a flaming spear. But her divine form is ancient, weathered, spent, with arms and eyes and heart traded piece by piece over the years to save pieces of the world. There is nothing left of her to give in this moment, and so she is struck aside like a gnat.

Alexa follows next; priorities shifting flawlessly in response to monstrosity. She catches a great sweep of a jagged talon with one arm, pulls it into a tight grip, and twists. There is a sickening crunch as the God-Monster's bones break, and moments later he is beset by a storm in yellow. Not one of the Coherent maintains loyalty upon seeing the true form of their master; their blows fall like Zeus' wrath, ripping open armoured plates to reveal bleeding muscles and broken bones. Even Jil turns in this moment, the new champion striking her patron out of reflexive shock and horror.

Into the gaps leap the Assassins. With sword and venom and biowarfare, the children of the Temple strike against their terrible deity. Mortal bodies are things of compromises, machinery of blood and fiber and electrochemistry, and these sisters use all of their secret techniques to break down the animating force of this titanic remnant.

But he is tenacity incarnate.

Many of the Coherent die. All of them would have, were it not for the intervention of a girl with a wooden sword. But for all that her Goddess is close, she is not [i]here[/i], and she is put to flight. Slitted eyes slash across to Alexa. For all that she resembles her Goddess, her Goddess is dead, and she is broken upon the stones. The blades of the Assassins carve all their way to the twisted heart of the monster, and there they stop. The beast grins up at them. He can endure their attacks in good spirits because he knows, just like their Goddess, that they want it too much to strike the final blow. And so they are stabbed and smashed and broken, even as the creature's vulnerable heart beats grotesquely out of the torn armour upon its back.

It looks around at the bloody ruin it has made. It smiles. It stretches hideously, fixes its loosely hanging jaw, pops a mutilated shoulder back into place. Thick, red fleshy mist surrounds it like a fog. It sees what it wants at last: Its daughter and her Princess, standing together in the ruin of their throne room.

And the smile fades. It is still not happy. It will never be happy. 

"I said," it rasps, reaching out with a terrible hand. "[i]don't look at me like that[/i]."

*

[b]Dyssia![/b]

"Actually, yeah, you're right," said Cyanis. "I don't have time to argue about my Princess wardrobe all day with some boring [i]genie[/i]. That's [i]handmaiden [/i]work. I have [i]napping [/i]to do. You, snake lady, figure it out with this guy while I sleep and I'll kill you when I wake up."

Without waiting for a reply she walked right back out through the door in search of a sunbeam. The vast, shifting mechanical monstrosity that was Hephaestus chittered and clicked in the long silence that followed.

Then, gradually, a mechanical typewriter clanked into place in front of it.

"Issue one," it clattered. "Resolution of the tiara question."

[b]Dolce![/b]

Katherine Isabella Fluffybiscuits froze up for a moment. Not that she was going to say no, but because she was going to say - [i]how?[/i] She didn't know this place, wasn't in control of this situation, and her skillset came down to napping and defeating giant space monsters with swordfighting. But she didn't want to ask Dolce help either because granting space sheep wishes was Important, it was just all a lot and a lot of scary and -

"I have secured a hovercraft," said Actia, stepping out of the shadows. "And a map."
"Actia!" Kat hugged her so hard that she staggered backwards. "Thank you! Thank you!"
"It's - okay. I've always wanted to steal a hovercraft," Actia said awkwardly.
"We'll take care of everything, promise!" said Katherine. "And then we'll come back to help you fight more! Some fights go on for hours at a time, so you never know - just make sure to drink lots of water! You don't want to get dehydrated during a monster fight, and also if your battle goes into space make sure you've got the helmety sunglasses mode thing turned on because it's really bright up there -"
Actia took her hand. 
"Okay! Going now!" Katherine said, turning to go. "Good luck!"