Non-Canon Omake: The Little Spider, Chapter 32 (Patreon)

“Daaaaa!” Arachne grabbed at her father’s shirt. “Why is everyone here? Were you watching me? You said you wouldn’t! Uncle Ddraig was hiding in my spear too!” She started pulling on his hair and pushing his head back and forth.

It created a weird scene under the tension. But despite her actions, there was a very clear pressure radiating out from him and pressing down on all the Greek gods present.

“Do you think we’d let you go anywhere near these screw-ups without supervision?” He asked her in return.

“Already said that!” Ddraig chimed in from the side.

“See, Ddraig already told you.”

Arachne puffed up. “Why is everyone here then!?”

“I knew the second that Ddraig came out. I wasn’t going to jump the gun, but when you called, well, I already had your aunts and uncles willing to come if something happened.” Wilhelm reached out and rubbed her head. 

“Hmph!” Arachne pouted with her arms crossed.

Of course he added an alarm in case Ddraig came out. Because if Ddraig came out, that means that something happened. And while he was very confident in Ddraig’s ability to protect her, he was still a worried father.

So he called up the extended family based on who was available on short notice and told them what was happening and asked if they were busy. And then she actually called him; well, everyone readily just descended right away.

"Wilhelm…" Athena was the first to speak among the gods. Her voice carried with it a strange nostalgia, perhaps even a hint of fondness after seeing someone she knew after so long.

Wilhelm looked at her, and under that gaze, she felt herself wanting to take a step back.

It wasn’t even the pressure he was emitting.

Perhaps it was disdain?

“Ah, a volunteer.” He spoke casually.

That almost seemed like a signal.

Just as quickly as the words were spoken, powers erupted everywhere.

The ground around them churned as it had been commanded, only for newly grown sprouts to be seared and cut in a wave of purple lightning.

In the air, faster than most could see, the sound of metal clashing resounded hundreds of times in an instant with Hermes hitting the ground, sliding to a stop, and a familiar orange-haired man holding his sword over his shoulder.

Apollo was confused and anxious as his Sunfire was met head-on by another’s. Even if he had the advantage, he realized he wouldn’t be able to make a decisive victory in any short amount of time.

The sound of a bowstring being pulled caused the air to shatter and explode; a multitude of arrows, each one like a missile, had filled the sky.

There was a sigh from a normal-looking human before he uttered some words and casually stepped between all of them at speeds that bordered teleportation.

Dionysus’s hands twitched; a large club appeared in his hands, but he was also being glared at by an impassive Thorum.

“Ahem. I’m actually not much of a fighter.” The God of Wine decided not to do anything.

Perhaps it was Poseidon who was feeling the most pressure.

He held his iconic trident up, his divine symbol, pointed at the Primordial Sea Goddess across from him. Sweat dripped down his brow because he could feel the ancient chaotic ocean’s swirling behind her gaze.

She turned his way after watching everyone else, and with a big smile, she ran right past the confused Poseidon and wrapped Percy into a hug.

It took Poseidon a brief moment to realize what just happened, spinning around, ready to fight for the life of his son, only to see her rubbing his face free of dirt, wiping away dried blood, fussing over him like a mother.

"Dad…help, I don’t know what’s happening.” Percy squeezed out.

Poseidon was also confused.

The ones who were suffering the most weren’t the gods, nor even Percy here.

Annabeth and Luke were all but cowering on the ground as forces beyond their comprehension were battling all around them.

The sky was breaking, the earth was trembling, and every time they looked up, a world-shattering blow nearly blew them away just because they were too close.

That was until a pair of arms gently wrapped around both of them.

“It’s alright, you don’t need to be afraid.” A gentle, beautiful, and warm voice seemed to immediately alleviate their fears.

“Y-you are…?” Annabeth couldn’t find the words as Gabriel, the Archangel, supported both of them.

Even Luke, who had been around literal gods most of his life, was feeling a sense of awe.

“They can be a little excitable, but don’t worry, they’re all paying attention and making sure nothing truly dangerous comes this way.” Jeanne also helped them up. 

Mordred was next to her. As much as she was willing to throw down, she didn’t have much interest unless things got to the point where heads were going to start rolling. “Yeah, yeah. Honestly, they’re just playing around, postulating, and all that shit. If they got serious, the land here would have already been decimated.”

That made the kids suck in a cold breath of air.

“Hello, do you need help?” Orihime offered a hand to the last of the ‘mortals’ present. Technically not a mortal, as she was a Huntress. But even Zoe Nightshade was having trouble standing amidst the commotion.

Zoe was bewildered as the foreign-looking woman helped her stand properly.

She couldn’t feel any kind of threat or danger from the orange-haired girl, yet she was standing there, completely unperturbed by everything happening.

Like a pillar, unmoving, in the face of a typhoon.

There was another intense heat that burst out, but it was accompanied by the sound of a hammer crashing down on an anvil.

Just as well, the heat met a wave of frost before it could spread too far.

Rukia had her sword drawn, slashing it along the earth, to push away the heat of the forge that radiated off of Hephaestus as the two began to join in.

A strange scent suddenly filled the air as well.

To each person, it smelled slightly different, but it carried with it a strange feeling of euphoria and desire.

Percy’s eyes glazed slightly before Tiamat made a noise and poked his forehead, clearing his mind.

Poseidon snapped back to his senses. “R-release my son!” He went to grab Percy free, but Tiamat refused, and the two began to pull on him like a tug-of-war, with Percy stuck in the middle.

The same scent found the other mortals as well.

Annabeth’s face began to heat up, and Luke trembled slightly as their expressions changed.

“Oh dear, that isn’t very nice.” Gabriel said gently, and a golden light radiated outwards, pushing the invisible drifting scent away. “Excuse me, Jeanne, I’m going to go have words with someone about how they could treat children. Naughty thoughts shouldn’t be forced on them~” With a flap of her wings, she shot forward.

The Archangel’s hand grasped at the air, nothing present, until a small shriek exploded as the Archangel had pulled a Goddess of Love out from an invisible, hazy, distorted mist that she was hiding behind, throwing her across the ground.

The Goddess of Love quickly got up, blowing away her ruined strands, falling in front of her face.

It seemed like all of her attempts to invoke love or lusts were just…rolling right off Gabriel as if she didn’t even notice.

Aphrodite was not feeling confident.

Wilhelm simply brushed the remnants away around him and Arachne, causing them to disperse in the area so the others were no longer being affected.

The occasional shockwave went tremors and bursts of air outwards, but for the most part, the fighting happening all around them had left the ones not fighting out of the commotion.

Scáthach had rejoined the brawl as well, going right after Hera.

The Queen of Gods was enraged beyond belief, screaming with indignation as she was forced to fight for her life against someone who wasn’t even a god.

There was one last god unaccounted for, besides Zeus, who was still recovering from Ddraig’s earlier beating.

“Come on, do something.” Odin kept poking Ares with his walking stick. “Everyone else is having fun; why are you so disappointing?”

Ares threw up a mouthful of blood from the sheer anger. And also the wounds he was still suffering from now that he was 'mortal.'

Hades had his arms crossed as he watched the fighting happening. His desire to fight had diminished greatly even if he was on edge earlier. The fact of the matter was, none of his siblings or their children were jumping to their Divine Forms.

And even if he didn’t know who all these other people were, he could see that they too weren’t throwing out everything they had.

Hades was the most pragmatic of the gods; he could see that it was pointless to join in.

And besides, he was a god of the underworld, not of Olympus.

“When are you due?” Hades asked Izanami as if they were old friends.

“Soon.” She rubbed her belly with a small smile. “We think in the next few months.”

“Boy or girl?”

“We didn’t check. We wanted to just be a surprise.”

“Did you check their domains?”

“Not intentionally, but we think it might have something to do with Fortune.” Izzy shook her head.

It was rare for a deity like Izanami to give birth to another god, so even Hades was curious. Especially in this day and age, most older gods didn’t have direct godly children.

“Come by when they’re born. Cerberus just had a new litter of pups; you can pick one out and give them a companion for life.” Hades grunted.

There wasn’t much else said, mostly because something changed amidst the chaotic situation.

The sky above exploded in sound, a thundering that could shake the entire continent, causing all of them to stop.

The Gods of Olympus basically all came down, jumped back, or disengaged into their side near Athena.

And on the opposite, Arachne’s family stood next to Wilhelm.

“That was getting out of hand.” Wilhelm said calmly, the source of the sky rumbling. “Now, let’s get back to the topic at hand. I said I would give all of you a chance to defend yourselves.” 

“Hang on, there’s one forgotten over here.” Odin dragged a very indignant Ares with him as everyone stared at the God of War, not even struggling anymore, as if he had just accepted this was happening.

“Uncle Odin!” Arachne ran over at him. “Stop bullying Uncle Ares! He came and fought with me! He’s a good one!”

“Eh?” Odin looked at the blank expression on Ares’ face. “This one?” He kicked Ares at the side. “No way, you’re probably mistaken.”

“Uncle Odin!”

Well, Wilhelm too was surprised, but if his daughter said it, he would believe it. And it made sense now as to why Ares was reading as a mortal. It must have been some sort of punishment for doing something against their interests.

Like maybe helping his daughter?

“Orihime, could you please heal him?” Wilhelm asked.

“Sure! "Orihime, ever the chipper girl, just hopped over to him. Before Ares could say a word, his eyes dilated in shock. “Sōten Kisshun, I reject.” The orange-like shield enveloped Ares, and his wounds began to disappear at a visible pace.

But that wasn’t what caused not just Ares but all the gods to have a similar reaction.

It was because of the restrictions, the command, and the punishment of Zeus that it broke.

Divine Power refilled the God of War.

He stood up, feeling back to full power, fully healed, and back at his best. He couldn’t even believe it himself as he looked himself over.

He could only stare at the mortal girl.

The girl that was very clearly human, that very clearly had no divinity, had no divine ancestry. To all the gods present, they could see clearly that she was purely, entirely, human. And she broke the divine punishment of Zeus.

“Impossible.” The King of Gods blurted out. “Impossible! What kind of thing are you!?”

“Oi.” Ichigo’s eyes narrowed. “She’s my wife. Watch your mouth.” His spiritual pressure descended, pushing back the rolling clouds above and making the earth tremble.

Zeus’s eyes widened again as he felt a newfound weight push him back to the ground.

Orihime was all but swooning after those words.

Her innocence had never quite disappeared, the genuine and expressive parts of her that didn’t hide anything behind a mask.

“Shall we go around the room?” Wilhelm asked. “Arachne, which ones were trying to bully you?”

“Stupid Zeus and Hera.” Arachne crossed her arms.

“Ah, of course. How surprising.” He drawled. 

“How should we handle them, dear?” Scathach stepped next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “To kill them would be easy.”

“How dare you—" Zeus was about to roar furiously, but his face got shoved into the ground, hard.

Wilhelm was off his seat, pushing the King of the Gods back into the dirt with enough force to shatter the ground beneath them.

“No, how dare you.” He intoned. “Because you sit up on some self-imposed throne, you think you can harm my daughter!? The only reason your entire Pantheon still exists is because she isn’t harmed. If there was so much as a hair out of place on her head, I would have burned your pathetic mountain to the ground.”

Zeus tried to fight against him, his lightning swelling up. But Wilhelm’s own arm turned into Divine Lightning as well, and with another boom, he shoved Zeus’s head back into the dirt as lightning flew outwards.

“Do you think you can’t die? That you’re truly immortal? I will gladly disabuse you of that notion.” Wilhelm growled under his breath. 

"Wilhelm," Athena spoke again.

It did make him pause.

Perhaps, despite everything, they were close friends once. When he lived in this world years ago, when he was going to school for his own reasons. She was a friend of his, and they spent a lot of time together.

Wilhelm let go of Zeus, his furious expression disappearing. “Stop.” He said pointedly. “The only reason I’m not giving you the same treatment is because you are my daughter’s mother. Even if you very much do not deserve that title.” 

Athena was silent.

“I can understand Zeus being a piece of shit. I mean, how many issues has your Pantheon had because they started with ‘And Zeus was horny'?" He said that half as a joke, but realistically, none of the gods could refute that either. “And probably the next 30-40% of the problems—how many of them were because Hera is a spiteful bitch?” 

The Queen of Gods glared at him furiously, but once more, what could be argued? At the very least, the other gods weren’t going to defend Zeus or Hera against those accusations because they believed them just as well.

“Not that most of you lot are any better.” Wilhelm shook his head. “But, Athena, I am disappointed in you. Despite everything, even knowing who you are and how fucked up your extended family is. How shit your entire Pantheon is. Maybe, just maybe, I was hopeful that you would be a proper mother to her.”

Wilhelm turned back to where he came from. “No, I shouldn’t be disappointed with you. I should be disappointed in myself for believing something like that.”

He went back into his chair, sitting down with a long breath.

“I miss when I was younger; I could just throw caution to the wind, be inconsiderate of consequences, and simply do whatever I wanted because I felt like I was right.” Wilhelm sighed again. “Ddraig, which ones should we kill, which ones should we spare?”

“The Huntress girl tried to mess with the little spider’s mind early on.”

“Kill.” Wilhelm said without much emotion.

Artemis’s eyes widened, but she didn’t immediately react.

“Apollo?”

“Eh.”

Wilhelm waved it off since there was no proper reason. “Hermes?”

Ddraig grunted. “Ignore.”

“Hephaestus?”

“Never met him.”

“Aphrodite?”

“Out of just principle?”

“Ignore for now then.” Wilhelm settled on. “If we just kill because they deserve it for other reasons, they would all die.”

Ddraig held up his claws, counting them down. “Demeter, ignore. Poseidon, ignore. Hades, friend. Ares, friend. Dionysus, friend.”

Wilhelm raised an eyebrow at several of those names. “And of course, the two worst of the lot.” His eyes landed on Zeus and Hera.

They weren’t the type of gods to sit there and let someone monologue or insult them to their faces. But as they had just experienced, they weren’t in a position to shout or get angry at the moment.

Wilhelm watched their reactions before clapping his hands. “You know what, I just had a wonderful idea.” He took out his phone, playing with it for a few moments. “Let’s bring someone else over!”

Wilhelm flicked his hand, producing another portal.

It was like the world went silent as the eldest of the gods there froze as someone walked out.

Large in stature, wearing a hemp robe, fresh sweat on his brow from working the fields.

Zeus was a prideful man.

He could be beaten; he could be crushed in a fight. But he would still be rebellious; he would still hold anger and vengeance in his heart. Not once had he begged for mercy so far, even if he screamed.

But for the first time, he felt a genuine fear in his heart, a cowardice from a time long forgotten. A feeling that swelled back up from when he himself was but a child and the world was still a terrifying place.

“Hey there kids, it’s been awhile.” Kronos greeted his children. “Oh boy, it’s a full family reunion!”

There was a feeling of dread that washed over them.

A typhoon could be called a natural disaster.

But Kronos was their arch enemy. The biggest threat, their biggest nightmare And now, he was standing right in front of them, full and whole.

Kronos tilted his head because someone else just arrived.

It was just a wisp of flame that flew down from the sky before it burst out quietly into a full silhouette. “Hello, Father. It’s been awhile.”

"Hestia," Kronos greeted her.

Her words didn’t carry with them familial affection, but they also didn’t carry with them the intense hate or a burning wrath.

She looked at him for a long while, then at Wilhelm. “Can we end this here? We’ll try our best to offer an explanation or apology for everything so far.”

@***@

Wilhelm: Killing them would be too easy; let’s traumatize them instead! Brings out Kronos.

Yeah, basically wrapping up the Little Spooder story. Derail the world enough that future plots don’t matter! Just like her father.