"Durga, I can protect myself against the demons, do not get too worried," Saraswati flashed a smile at Durga.

The latter seemed frustrated and ultimately just sighed in response.

However, she suddenly frowned and turned to Alex.

"I sense an extremely evil object at your disposal," Durga spoke coldly.

Alex looked confused by her sudden declaration.

'Evil object? Is she speaking of the ruby?' Alex thought that the only evil object he had in his possession was the ruby.

Durga smirked and pointed one of her swords at him.

"I demand you to pass along that abhorrent object to me!"

"....No?" Alex wasn't planning on giving her the ruby.

Durga seemed furious and stated, "What a disgrace, someone with a warrior's aura such as yourself protecting a tool of such evil."

Her eyebrows were even more tense than usual, and she glared at him.

She continued, "I will ask a final time for you to give me that object."

"Durga, this man is clearly not a hostile entity, please behave your-

"Lady Saraswati, my role is to dispose of demons and objects that harm the dharma of our land, please do not interfere."

Without giving Alex a chance to react, she got down from her horse and charged at him.

Two of her arms prepared a sharp arrow.

One other arm held a tall spear and her fourth arm wielded a longsword.

Very abruptly, Alex was under the threat of three different deadly weapons, and he wasn't prepared for a fight whatsoever.

As he was about to dodge and counter, a harmonious sound suddenly flowed into his ears.

Weirdly, he couldn't move his body anymore, and Durga, who was charging at him earlier, also froze in her place.

Durga exclaimed, "Lady Saraswati, do not use the veena(1) against me!"

The two frozen deities could not even turn their heads but Saraswati coughed and replied, "Durga, apologize for your rash actions."

Strangely, Durga's body started moving.

It looked like it was not of her own volition, as she clenched her teeth and tried to regain control of her motor system, albeit unsuccessfully.

She was soon in a bowing position, and her lips moved stiffly.

"I. Apologize." Her voice did not contain any tonal diversity at all.

Then, the two regained control of their bodies and Alex turned to Saraswati.

Two of her arms were wielding a wooden violin-like instrument, however, it had a larger and more rounded amplification box, producing a crisper and more harmonious sound.

'Sound waves to control movements? That's an interesting power...'

When she regained her movement, Durga didn't charge at him this time, but she glared at him like she wished to murder him.

Alex didn't want to make any enemies, so he took out the ruby and wanted to explain the situation properly.

The moment he took it out, Durga almost attacked him but a simple glance from Saraswati discouraged her.

Alex cleared his throat and spoke, "This ruby, in fact, contains a great evil."

"Then-

"However, the great evil has a conscious form, and by possessing and cursing this ruby, I was able to restrict the evil inside of it, and actually use it to vanquish more evil."

"I can't believe you wouldn't want to use it for nefarious purposes."

"Lady Durga, I believe? Do not entitle yourself to justice, you are not to meddle in my own uses of this ruby or judge my values." Alex knew Durga was probably an honorable person, but it did not make her a supreme judge.

"Lady Saraswati? Is he saying the truth?" Durga turned to Saraswati.

The latter stared at Alex for a few seconds and then nodded.

"Did I miss anything~~?" An unknown masculine voice interjected.

Alex recognized the voice and saw Hermes coming inside through the large windows of the library.

He had a huge stash in his back, and Alex already knew its contents.

The two goddesses ignored Hermes and Durga honestly apologized this time.

"Alex, we will be moving, if you wish to share any wisdom, I inhabit the banks of the Sarasvati river."

Following that, the two goddesses left the palace through the winged muscular horse.

"Is the party already over, Alexei-boy?" Hermes looked around cluelessly.

"It's so late, what were you even doing?"

"Good that you asked~~Let me show you, when I was in the city, I found this tea, from the Assam region, and it is said to have the taste of Jasmin, ginger, and juniper berries."

Hermes opened the stash that was on his back and Alex just looked mindlessly at the contents.

It was an enormous quantity of loose tea leaves.

They were shriveled up and extremely dry and the smell was less-than-pleasant.

Alex shook his head disappointingly and said, "Hermes, I think some vendor scammed you into buying spoiled goods."

"You're the god of merchants, you should be better at this."

"But, Alexei-boy...It has the notes of juniper and Jasm-

"No, it doesn't, it smells like wet grass."

Alex coughed and asked, "Did you spend a lot of money on this?"

"Oh, no, it was for free, when I showed the vendor the magical chariot, he got all scared and thought I was an 'avatar' and gave me all of his stock for free."

"Say that from the start, will you?"

________________________________________________________________

Back in Greece, in the mountainous central regions.

A carriage passed through the mountains, and when the terrain was too rough to continue, it halted.

A woman came out of the carriage.

She had black hair and a device that looked like glasses sat upon her nose bridge.

She was wearing a red uniform with an insignia of a roaring golden lion over a red background.

The woman looked around, exasperated, and lamented, "Mercury said Olep is in this direction...."

"Men!" She shouted in the direction of the carriage.

Two men with the same uniform came out and she asked, "Would you know where we are?"

One of the men took out a map and looked around.

He said, "It seems like we've taken wrong turns, Lady. We are on the outskirts of a small village of the name of Atreksos."

The woman rolled her eyes and thanked the man.

She then climbed a tall hill and observed the 'village' of Atreksos.

"Are you sure this is a village? This looks like a metropolis to me." The woman looked at the urban center down the other side of the hill and spoke, confused.

She then went down to Atreksos and a man came up to her.

"Lady, would you be interested in making offerings to Lord Alex?"

"I'm actually on my way to Olympus, would you know where we should move from here?" The woman slipped a few gold coins into the man's hands.

"Of course, Milady, It is in this direction..."