Being bathed by a goddess was not something Laz had ever imagined in his lifetime as Hera seemed to take great care in it, washing every inch of him whether he wanted her to or not. After a while, it seemed to him like she was preparing him for something, although he didn’t have any idea what.

What came at even more of a shock was that when she was done with his body, she began working on his hair, his eyebrows, taking care of the bit of beard he had grown from not having time to do anything about it for several months now. More than just a bath, it was like he was being primed and pampered.

But again, she didn’t say anything and he didn’t ask.

When she was finally done, she ended up draping a robe on him of red and while silk and taking a look at her work.

"This doesn’t seem like what you originally had in mind...?" Laz finally commented, pointing out the strangeness of the situation.

"It wasn’t no. But as I said time is tight and there are other’s who require your attention more. Although I do desire it... there is a much larger problem that needs as much time as possible to confront so as an Empress, I must give in to the needs of the many who are currently supporting me. But make no mistake. Once this is over, you will keep me company for at least a day, if not two," Hera said, her voice again low and seductive.

"Fair enough. I promise that I won’t stop until you are unable to walk straight," Laz said, causing a shudder to go down Hera’s spine. She knew that with his breaking the shell and becoming a full god, he was much stronger than before. And even back then, she hadn’t had an easy go of it. Not only that, but there was something deeper in the way he spoke, something that sparked deep within her, making her desire burn. She hurried to cross her still naked legs as she felt herself become immensely wet just from the sound of his voice.

After a few moments, she finally regained her composure enough to respond to Laz, instructing him on what he needed to do next.

Just head right through there. I’ve... arranged things. You must... get my other six daughters to break through their shell as well and ascend to godhood. The difficulty of this lies in the fact that they are like Artemis was... completely opposed to the idea of anything having to do with sexual intercourse or even the idea of sex. While they take great pride in themselves as female heroes, they know almost nothing about the acts of men and women as they have only surrounded themselves with violence and bloodshed since young. It’s now in their nature to be more manly than womanly. This has even given me a headache in the past as while I respect their wishes, the fact that none of them were ever even willing to marry meant that their abilities were likely to fade away with time. But right now... they are willing to do anything to ascend in the hopes of participating in the war that’s coming. For those six... it was a huge blow for them to have so many of their non-combatant sisters suddenly break into godhood and become so much stronger than them... As for the ones like Eris who never got along with them... well... she’s been getting payback for a while now," Hera said, laying it all out and allowing Laz to read more into it than he was being told.

Basically, the warriors were getting their asses kicked by what used to be one of their youngest and weakest sisters and now that they were facing down a mob of wild beasts, many of which were going to be gods, they knew that they wouldn’t be much help unless something were to change.

It just so happened to be that something would have to be Laz.

"So are they all in there right now?" Laz asked, looking at the door.

"No. Just Athena. As far as the girls go, she’s kind of like the leader. While she is a warrior, she’s also a bit of a scholar so she holds the respect of the others for that. If you can break through to her, it would make it easy to break through to the others," Hera suggested, giving Laz an idea and with such an idea, a smile appeared on his face.

"So what was with the makeover?" Laz asked, pointing to his hair and beard.

"I’ve gotten a good idea of what kinds of men my girls like, both as their mother over the years and even more recently with spending time with them. Even though they never put much thought towards it, they are still women at heart so there is a desire somewhere, even if deep down."

"What if they prefer women? It’s not so unheard of right?"

"Of course it’s not. A woman’s love for another woman can be a beautiful thing. And perhaps there is some desire there... but from what I’ve seen, that’s generally not the case. At least, I don’t think any of them are opposed to men. The biggest problem is the strongest men they’ve seen have been their brothers and while there are some things my husband’s allowed, there was a line a never let him cross no matter how much he tried. And as for their brothers.... well... they weren’t exactly attracted to their sisters who favored bloodshed over bed acrobats. That I can say without hesitation," Hera clarified.

"Ah. Ok...So six virgins who have little to no sex drive normally and I’ve got like two days to get this done..."

"Well... yes. As I said, if Athena falls, the other’s won’t be much of a problem."

"And what did you tell them exactly?"

"Nothing about the process, just about the person who could make it happen. As for Athena... I asked her to clean up and go relax in the lounge and I would send the person responsible. What happens from there is all up to you. But if they are able to break through.... they would be an even stronger force than all of our armies combined..." Hera knew that she was asking him to basically pimp himself out to these women just to get them to break through, but right now neither she, nor he, had any choice.

Laz had never considered that being forced to have sex with attractive women would leave a bad taste in his mouth, but here he was.

"Good luck," Hera said before giving Laz a kiss on his cheek, as though a wife sending her husband off for battle.

Laz sighed and walked inside, leaving the Empress alone. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

After getting dressed, Hera left the bath and was joined by her daughters, Aphrodite and Persephone. The girls looked at their mother as though hoping for some encouraging words before Hera began to walk, stopping just in front of the lounge doors.

"Go," she ordered the guards, who quickly bowed and disappeared. This lounge was normally reserved for upper class guests who visited the fortress and would be guarded around the clock to make sure no one snuck in who wasn’t suppose to be there. But at the moment, it only held two people.

As they stood there, Hera looked at the door as though wondering if Laz would be able to handle this particular problem. She knew how prideful her daughter was, even more so than Artemis. If things didn’t go right, then there would be little that could be done to correct the fallout before the waves came.

"His understanding is greater than any of us can imagine," Aphrodite said, encouragingly.

"And his ability is truly a miracle as well mother. If there is anyone who can succeed, it would be him," Persephone added.

"I’m more aware of this than either of you realize. Just his bloodline alone would have made him such a person that I wouldn’t have been qualified to meet if there omniverse didn’t crumble to war. Once this is over... We should go and see if my order survived the end of the war. If what Laz said is true, the war has been over for many thousands of years. Perhaps it’s time to leave this world and erase our presence upon it so that it might develop naturally again."

"Truly mother?" Aphrodite asked. Even Persephone looked excited as they had both felt that world was far too small for them now that they had crossed into godhood. They couldn’t imagine how their mother had felt after being stuck here all these years. It was comparable to how a toddler would find unending things to do within their room when they were so young, but once they became older, the would desire to explore the big world, finding their room to be far too small for their lives.

"Of course. But that assumes we all live through this," Hera sighed again, looking at the door.

"FUCK YOU. I’LL KILL YOU. I SWEAR UPON MY ANCESTORS I’LL CUT YOU UP INTO PIECES AND FEED YOU TO MY HUNTING DOGS!" Came Athena’s angry shout from within the normally soundproof door.

...

"See? He’s doing fine!" Persephone finally said without a hint of conviction in her voice.