The Mortal God of Olympus Ch.18 (Patreon)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter 18– A Small Detour

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I couldn't help but chuckle at Luke the penguin. With thick clothes and metallic helmet covering him, he slowly waddled towards me with a scowl.

"You did this purposely didn't you?" He asked but his voice was distorted through metal.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." I replied with a snicker, not even bothering to hide my amusement.

It felt good to goof around with my friend, and for a moment i could almost believe we were back to the old times.

Of course, I also knew it wouldn't last. I could see it in his eyes, the hesitance to indulge. As if something was holding him back, dragging him by the head and telling him to not enjoy his life.

We spent a few minutes getting ready for our next flight.

Well... Luke spent the time getting ready while I killed some monsters in plain open view of mortals, using mist and concealment to make keep our fight invisible.

I fnally got another level up after killing literal dozens of monsters. I probably slayed every monster in the city, all of whom were attracted to my smell like flies to honey.

After the level up, I sat at a good Lvl 487, but with the extra 30 points in physical stats through my wings, I had exactly 550 in speed.

And I was planned to use all of my speed for this last bit of journey. Theoretically, I knew exactly how fast and strong I'm supposed to be, I'd done some research afterall.

But there's always a difference between theory and practice, and I wanted to know exactly how fast of a being I've become now. And considering my fight with that sword warrior was happening in milliseconds, I was willing to bet myself to be insanely fast.

At 6 in the evening, we finally left Sacramento, and headed for San Francisco.

In an instant, I accelerated past my previous maximum flying speed, breaking through the barriers of sound in a large crackling boom. My previous speed, which I'd recorded in the battle against monsters when I was still a tier 4, was just around 5500 km, or 3500 miles per hour.

I went almost thrice as fast now, accelerating past 10,000 miles per hour, with waves of force leaving in my wake.

By the end of that one single second, I'd successfully broken past 12 thousand miles per hour, and while the wind wasn't hurting me, the sheer cold stabbed at my naked face with such intensity that I felt like mosquitoes were chewing my face up.

I knew it would never hurt me though, not just because I was the son of sky god, but also because my constitution was too ridiculous for this speed to hurt me.

Nonetheless, it was still quite irritating, especially the waves of force that I left as I sped through the atmosphere, creating slight disturbances in my flight path.

Even so, I kept speeding and speeding and speeding, until at last, I broke past 18,000 miles per hour. I was almost at my limits but there was a slight sway in the air. I Increased my speed even more, but another jerk in my flight path convinced me to slow down. I had a passanger with me who might not survive this speed if I lost control over the wind.

I desperately wanted to know my exact limit but Luke's presence complicated things.

My day was ruined and my disappointment was immeasurable.

Atleast Luke's terrified screams soothed the wounds on my soul. So I kept flying at an evil pace for a few more seconds before noticing the ridiculous increment in my divine energy consumption. I was burning up almost 10,000 divine energy per second to keep travelling at this speed.

We reached San Francisco in just 15 seconds flat, but I'd lost around 150,000 divine power in this time.

Though I felt it was worth it. Most of my fights never lasted more than a few seconds nowadays, so 150,000 for 15 seconds of top speed was...alright, in my book. I still had 300,000 divine power remaining afterall.

We landed on the roads of San Francisco soon after. With me shivering a little, and Luke babbling insanely.

"The world is spinning so fast, Kael. The moon...the moon is winking at me! Oh no, the stars are writing in the sky! Their diaries.. What to do..."

Sighing, I clutched his neck and dragged him along.

"We'll have to find a place to crash. Can't fight a dragon like this." I groaned to myself in despair.

Maybe mindcontrol some hotel manager? Or should I just create a house from scratch? A luxurious mansion with a swimming pool full of hot water...

Hmm... tempting. But too much work.

"Where are we going?" Luke murmured, finally out of his bout of insanity.

"Finding a place to sleep."

"No!" He jerked himself out of my grasp, an expression of fear on his face, before he shook his head in consternation. "I mean, we should just get this over with. This quest is a waste of time, let's just do it now and go back to camp."

I started at him carefully.

The boy wasn't looking too good, and I wondered when was the last time he slept.

Why did he fear sleeping so much? Did he get nightmares or something?...perhaps Thalia's nightmares? Or is it something more sinister...

"Luke." I stared him in the eye sternly. "Tell me the prophecy."

I was getting a little suspicious now; there was something afoot happening with Luke that I didn't know about. Though that was more because I just couldn't bring myself to care in the past.

The boy's face instantly paled at my words, and I knew I hit the mark. Something was wrong, and the prophecy must be the cause of it.

"I... I can't. I'm sorry."

"Look, whatever it is, I won't judge. I swear."

"You don't understand!" He screamed suddenly, and with such vehemence that I almost summoned the Stormbreaker.

He took a deep breath to control himself, and his shoulders slumped. "None of you do. Let's just get this over with. The garden of Hesperides is under mount Tamalpais, and i know the w–"

Suddenly we were approached by a man, interrupting our argument.

"What's going on here?" He asked, glancing at me before shooting a suspicious scowl towards luke. "Bullying younger boys now are we?"

Luke sputtered indignantly, and I stepped forward again, taking the lead. "He's my brother. We were just leaving."

With that I clutched Luke's arm and started dragging him.

"Now hold on for a second, kid." The man cut us off.

Not being in the mood, I quickly cast hypnosis magic on him. I felt a little bad, considering he was only trying to help, but we needed to get going.

"We can't fight like this, Luke. Don't be stupid." I said while checking my stats. "Plus, you can only approach the garden during sunset. We've lost our chance."

Mikael

Age: 10

Race: God/Angel/Devil Hybrid

Tier: 5

Level: 486

Divine Power: 323,000/468,000

Holy Power: 468,000/468,000

Demonic Power: 463,560/468,000

Stamina: 472,000/486,000

Health: 506,000/506,000

Stats

Strength: 496

Speed: 526

Dexterity: 516

Endurance: 486

Constitution: 506

Mental: 42

Spirit: 468

Points: 8

I had to admit, tier 5 beings were built different. Travelling a journey from long Island to san Francisco, over 3000 miles, in just a couple of hours was insane.

The fact that I could still fight any being on similar leve, and most likely whoop tier asses under a minute, was even more amazing. Just as amazing was the fact that a goodnight's sleep was all I needed to go back to my peak condition.

Now I just needed to find a good place to get that goodnight sleep.

"Where will we go then? Some fancy hotel where a monster could attack us? You probably didn't think of that did you? Of course not, the great Mikael doesn't need to take lowly monsters into his consideration."

"Luke, shut up for a second. You are irritating me." I snapped, and thankfully the boy quietened down immediately.

Suddenly an idea struck me, and i turned towards Luke who seemed to be sulking.

"Didn't Annabeth tell us that her family was shifting in San Francisco?" I asked him, though I knew I was correct. My memory never failed me.

"Yeah." He answered grudgingly before scowling again. "But I also remember her describing them as a couple of monsters. You don't actually think they'll help us, right?"

"Annabeth is a child, and probably exaggerated some things." I said, ignoring his weak defense for Annabeth. "I'm sure they'll help us if we ask nicely. I'm sure they'll help me atleast. I'm just too cute to refuse."

 I dragged the sputtering boy along with me. One good thing about mental stat was that my memory got incredibly sharp. Anna lite only mentioned her father's new address in passing without any real care, but I could still remember it.

And so, off we went in reach of the Chase family.

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The door to the Chase house opened for us, and a pretty asian woman with shades of red in her hair looked us up and down with confused and questioning eyes.

"Yes?" She asked.

I glanced at Luke but the traitorous bastard stepped back, forcing me to take the lead.

"We are looking for Fredrick Chase." I answered the now bemused woman.

"You are at the right spot. Now what do you want with him?"

"...We are Annabeth's friends and were hoping for some help."

"Annabeth?" The woman exclaimed in surprise. "Is she well? Did she come with you?"

 "No, she did not. I don't think she would want to either." Luke butt in callously.

"Luke." I warned sternly, frowning at the boy till he glanced away.

The woman looked worried as she stared at us for a few seconds before nodding.

"You'd better come in please." She waved us inside before shouting back in the house. "Fred! Annabeth's friends are here!"

We entered the house, following after the woman.

"Be polite." I warned luke with a whisper and an elbow to the ribs.

The man that came down to greet us looked like an unkept scientist. Loose and unbottoned shirt, raised collars, and a history book in his hand was all I needed to know that Mr. Chase was an eccentric man.

"Why, hello there Annabeth's friends!" The man shot us a friendly smile but it quickly turned to a concerned frown. "Did Annabeth say when she will come back? Did...did something happen to her?"

"Oh no, she's completely fine, don't worry. We're here on a...a personal quest." I replied, giving the couple a charming smile.

'This had better fucking work.' I grimaced in my mind. I really wasn't looking forward to go hotel-hunting right now.

"Oh! where are my manners." The lady exclaimed softly. "This man here is Fredrick Chase, and I'm his wife and Annabeth's step mother, Natalie chase. May I have your names gentlemen?"

"...Luke." Came the blonde boy's cautious reply.

"And I'm Mikael Gabrielson. Nice to meet you."

"Please dears, sit and relax. Are you hungry?"

"No–"

"Yes. Yes we are, Ms. Chase. And thank you for your hospitality." I cut off Luke again,

I didn't like being overly polite to anyone, even my own father, but Luke was forcing me to be nice by being so openly hostile. It was a delicate balancing act and I was of a mind to... moderately injure Luke to shut him up.

"Follow we boys, I want to know everything about what Annabeth's been doing for the last two years." Mr. Chase announced, taking the stairs for the upper floor.

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Ms. Chase joined us in the middle of my tale, with plates and bottles of sandwiches and sodas.

I'd stomped on Luke's foot to stop with his hostilities, and moved on to describe the war and what we've been doing for the past two years.

"That's...wow." Mr. Chase rubbed his eyes slowly as I finished my epic tale. "The things you said...the things you described, deserves to be written in history books for all to see and learn from. A group of children fighting a war against the monsters. What a shame that it'll be forgotten sooner or later. If only I could save it somehow..."

"Please forgive Frederick, Mikael. His priorities are badly skewed." Mrs. Chase said with an exasperated sigh, before giving me a look of profound sadness. "I'm sorry you had to go through all that simply for existing. No child should lose as much as you have. Well, actually no one at all should lose so much in their life, but especially not a child."

Through all this, Luke kept quiet, munching on his sandwiches sullenly.

"So I understand what Annabeth did for the last two years, but do you know how she survived after running away?"

"Frederick!" Mrs. Chase bellowed, smacking her husband on the head. "Mind your words."

"What?" The poor man asked bewildered as he faced his wrathful wife. "I only wanted to know where she lived, what she ate...that type of stuff. I don't get what's wrong with that..."

Mrs. Chase simply shook her head before releasing a long-suffering sigh.

"Ah well... that I do not know. I only met her in long Island. She was there with Luke and Thalia." I replied absently, stuffing some juicy sandwiches down my gullet.

There was a moment of silence and I looked back up to see both the chase parents staring at Luke imploringly.

Uh oh.

"Why should I tell you anything? Why do you even care?" And Luke opened his uncontrollable trap to spew out his shit like an A grade asshole.

I sighed.

"Listen here young man—"

"No, you listen! You want to know how I found her? I found her in an abandoned factory, hiding under a fluted sheet of iron, hungry and tired. Probably hadn't slept for days either while wearing the same torn clothes. You know why she ran away? Because you didn't have a single blasted care for her! She was attacked and bitten by spiders for days and you thought that she was lying? I thought my parents were the biggest pieces of waste but atleast they didn't torture me by letting monsters attack me without a care in the world! And blaming a little girl for those monsters? Why didn't you just gave her away to the camp if you didn't want her! Why di—"

"Stop." I commanded, letting my divine authority warp around the room.

Everyone went silent. Everything stopped moving. Mrs. Chase's tears hung in air as gravity itself seemed to stop, Mr. Chase was paused in place just as he got up to march towards Luke, and Luke himself became a complete statue, his eyes wide and fearful.

It was only for a moment before things became normal again, and the tears started to follow the laws of gravity while Mr. Chase sat back down, and Luke learned to breathe again.

"Luke, go look for a hotel for us to stay tonight. We'll talk later."

Not daring to defy me, he left.

"I'm sorry for that, I didn't know he was so bitter about it. It seems coming here was a mistake. I apologize for this."

With that I stood up, reluctantly setting down the last piece of sandwich. It was a good sandwich; with fried chicken and parmesan cheese. Unfortunately, even I wasn't shameless enough to just pick it up and carry it out with me.

Sighing again, I made my way down the stairs.

"Wait! please!" Mrs. Chase called out, wiping away her tears.

"Mrs. Chase?"

"He...he was right and it wasn't your fault. So please don't leave on our account. I request that you spend the night here."

I looked at the woman uncomprehensingly. How could anyone forgive that kind of thing...in that moment i realised something.

Humans were some of the nastiest and yet, the most beautiful pieces of shits. If I were in her place, Luke would've been a blood mark on the floor while his friend would be kicked out of the house. Fortunately, Mrs. Chase was a better piece of shit than me, probably one of the beautiful ones.

[+1 Wis]

Ooh, even the system likes pieces of shits!

"Are you sure?" I asked, just for assurance.

"Yes, I'm very sure. Also, bring your friend. No need to go out looking for hotels so late at night."

"Thank you. Really." I didn't bow (I'm a son of Zeus duh) but they were heartfelt words of gratitude.

I left the house in seach for Luke (and picked up my last chicken sandwich to eat) and found him not far from the house, staring down at a creek.

"Nice hotel you found here." I said sarcastically, waving at the creek while enjoying the smoky, juicy and meaty sandwich. Why can't they make this at camp?

He looked startled for a second before he turned to me. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have—"

I raised a hand to stop him from explaining himself. "I'm not your father Luke, I'm your friend."

Atleast, I used to be.

"But I could see how much you've changed in the recent days. Especially your temper. You need to control yourself, Luke. This is your quest, even if you aren't too interested in it. A loss of temper under the dragon could cost us both our lives."

He took my chastisement for what it was; an honest advice he'd do well to follow.

Ladon was a being even Hercules couldn't defeat. An unstable companion could hurt me more than the opponent. And if that actually happened, I will just fly away and leave the boy to his fate.

"Now come. Despite your earlier burst out, the Chase family is kind enough to let us stay the night."

"I am sorry, you know. I was projecting my own anger at my parents on them. They didn't deserve that."

"No, they didn't. You'll just have to apologise to them."

"Right. Of course. I'll do that."

"Good. Now c'mon."

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Luke made good on his promise and promptly apologized to the Chases. After which he spent almost two hours telling stories of his, Thalia's and Annabeth's adventures. Did I grow jealous at any point? Hah! Never! I'm the son of..!

Yeah I did. I grew jealous. A lot. Especially when he described meeting the hunters.

Now now, don't get me wrong, I wasn't a fan of the hunters. But I definitely wanted to meet them and give them a piece of my mind.

Especially that man-hating bitch Artemis. Maybe my views were coloured by the fictions I read, but holy fuck were the hunters annoying.

Like seriously! They hated males because their past boyfriends and lovers hurt them? Oh boohoo, let me just sit here and cry tears of sympathy for them, as if everyday millions of men and women don't get divorced. As if millions of teens don't find their girlfriends and boyfriends fucking their bestfriends behind their backs.

It was just a part of life. It happens to you? Fuck them bitches and bastards, move on to the new ones. Or kill them and take revenge, whatever. You do you.

But outright giving up on the opposite gender? Seriously? The entire group of hunters seemed like overgrown children who've been wronged but never learnt to let go and move on. Pathetic. Or maybe I just didn't understand them.

Nah, they were just pathetic.

Eventually the topic shifted to me, and I wondered if I should tell them about myself, before deciding to go with the spirit of our moment. It wasn't a big secret anyway.

"Well, I don't have any fantastic stories of fighting monsters except rare times, but more like, watching my mother fight while I cheered her on. Though I did kill a dragon when I was six, and that was pretty awesome."

"Wait, your mother? But didn't you say your father was the god? Zeus, right?"

"I am son of Zeus, but I lived my first eight years with my mother. Actually you should probably know my mother. Do you know angels of heaven?"

"Like Michael and Gabriel?"

"Exactly! In fact, I'm the son of the former angel, Gabriel." I declared with a proud smile and a flare of my wings.

They gasped. I preened.

And then they were all over me. Gods Damn it.

"Ooh! These are real wings! How is this possible? Does you spinal cord have extra compartments to store them, or do they come out from the back of your ribs? And how are your clothes still intact? And is this why you look so unnaturally—"

"Frederick, be a dear and shut up. Does it hurt you, Mikael? Are they uncomfortable to extend? Ooh, they are soo smooth and pretty, do you use shampoo to wash them? And what about..."

Gods damn it.

After some time they got over their shock and excitement, and look ashamed. As they should, I made sure to remind them.

Still, I answered their questions as best as I can— I don't know angel anatomy so I didn't know where we stored the wings; my clothes aren't intact, they have four holes in their back for my wings to flare out, I just cover the holes with mist to fool mortal eyes; No, they aren't uncomfortable to release; ...And no, I don't use shampoo to wash them but maybe I should. My beautiful wings deserve all the love they can get.

Eventually the night grew too deep and the parents tried being the adults for the first time that day and sent us to sleep.

I got Annabeth's room; well it was supposed to be Annabeth's if she ever came to live with them again. While Luke slept on the couch. I don't usually like to sleep but i needed to recover my divine energy and 6 hours of rest on a bed is necessary for that.

And so, at around 10 in the night, we all went to sleep.

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The next morning we were introduced to two little chases– Mathew and Bobby. While Luke and I got up to a comfortable start, Mathew and Bobby's day was a little more hectic; which included nappy changes, random tantrums, and some bad food play.

The elder Chase took a leave from his school for today (he was a history teacher), citing urgent family matters. Around 9 in the morning we were all sitting around the dining table.

"Say, you didn't tell us what you were here for yesterday, did you?" Mr. Chase asked, squinting his eyes as if to remember.

"No, we did not." I replied, before glancing at Luke. "Go on, tell them. It's not that big of a deal."

It was Luke's quest, better for him to explain. And explain he did, but he wasn't too enthused. As time passed, luke seemed even more uninterested in the quest.

'I should ask him for that prophecy again, after we're done with the Chases.'

The Chases had a lot of questions, and even more worries. But we managed to reduce them as much as we could. We still had a few hours to kill, and Mr. Chase suggested a practice match between us to see how far we were compared to normal humans; he even had these various tools to note how fast we moved and how strongly we struck.

Of course, he got smacked on his head for suggesting this by Mrs. Chase but we were too invested in the idea already.

In the afternoon, we drove to the Crissy fields, a former us army airfield, which was declared a wasteland and had just gone through restoration to be opened to public.

"I was hired for my historical knowledge, to try and recreate the bases just as they once were. I have a lot of equipments here, and a large open space where you two could fight!"

He was bonked on the head again by Mrs. Chase, who had also bought along her children to 'try and keep her husband from doing anything stupid.'

Crissy field wasn't some closed off military compound with large walls and boundaries as i was expecting. Instead it was...a field. An open field with a few houses and an incredible view of the bridge and the marsh that connected to the Pacific ocean. It was a simple but beautiful place.

There were a few people present and i had to put a thick layer of mist on their eyes to keep them from seeing anything they shouldn't.

After Mr chase set up his equipment, and Mrs. Chase requested we not take the fight too seriously, Luke and I squared off against each other. I created two steel swords (so our strength wouldn't break it) coated with wood for us to fight with, while taking a look at his stats.

Luke Castellan

Age: 16

Race: Demigod

Tier: 4

Level: 365 (Max)

Divine Power: 100,000/100,000

Stamina: 180,000/180,000

Health: 177,500/177,500

Stats

Strength: 345

Speed: 385

Dexterity: 380

Endurance: 360

Constitution: 355

Mental: 27

Spirit: 200

He had grown much since the monster battle. His ridiculous need to strengthen himself had made him a very powerful demigod, almost to the peak of tier 4. His main strength however, would always be his Sword wielding skills.

Though his maxed status troubled me a little. It looked similar to the gods. Did that mean he wouldn't grow anymore, Or that his physical stats wouldn't grow anymore? Had he finally reached his limit? It seemed likely. Now he can only hope to improve his Sword-fighting.

The fight was...boring. Luke was a fantastic swordsman, around master lvl 5 if I had to guess. But that was the only advantage that he had. Oh, and his height too.

And even in that, it was an advantage I purposely gave to him so he could atleast not bore me too much, considering I was a master lvl 6 in Spear-wielding, a weapon with higher reach which would even take out his height advantage.

Even without my wings, my speed and strength were simply out of his league. Any clever sword move he pulled on me was negated by my sheer speed and strength. He manages to lead me in a trap? I'll simply flex my wrist a bit to overpower him. He manages to get inside my guard? I'll simply move faster than he could react to knock him back. And this was after I was holding myself back. A lot.

To be honest, no demigod was my match anymore. And with this ridiculous 'max' thing they won't even be able to grow. Perhaps if I was living in the times of Hercule and Theseus...maybe they could've proven to be a challenge. But now? No demigod alive could hope to match me.

And Luke knew this. I could see it in his eyes; the frustration and anger. Knowing he'd never be my equal.

And I wasn't even using my true weapon! If I went all out, this fight would be over in a millisecond. Before anyone could even comprehend what happened, I could bend him in two, with his own sword down his throat.

Still, I let the fight go on for a good minute or so, before becoming bored, and finished the fight with a lightning quick twist of my sword to disarm him.

"Good fight." I said with a shameless smile

"No, it wasn't." He groaned out we as moved towards the Chases.

Their faces were worth looking; clear shock and awe was glinting in their eyes.

"I never knew you were superhumans! I mean.. I know you said it but still!" Mr. Chase exclaimed. "You both were moving atleast hundred times faster than humanly possible, while your strikes sent vibrations through the ground! Amazing, truly amazing. Imagine what you could've done in the world wars...the entire history would ha–"

Smack! "Don't say things like that Frederick!"

After that we did the strength test too. Luke was able to lift the whole biplane that Mr. Chase owned. It weighed over a ton, and needless to say, we both managed to lift it.

"What else can you pick up? Drat! I don't have proper measurements for strength, or we'd be done with this by now. We have a bulldozer here but it's a huge one. One of the biggest in existence in fact. It was used in reconstruction of this base. Probably weighs around eighty, eighty-five thousand pounds. It's a bit useless right now, so you can try that if you want. But that'll be too much, wouldn't it?"

The bulldozer was indeed huge. With panzer-like chains instead of tires, it looked more a tank than a bulldozer. So huge in fact, that even someone strong enough wouldn't be able to lift it completely. Not because it was too heavy, but because it would be too huge for them to get a good grip.

Luke tried it first, and with straining muscles, he managed to lift the back of the huge bulldozer but his hands were straining badly.

"Well, it seems we've reached your limit. I'd say you might be able to pick up the whole bulldozer if you try it from below the middle. Truly superhuman!"

Me, on the other hand...

"Holy lord! Are you sure you are even a human anymore?" Mr. Chase exclaimed when he saw me lift up the whole back of the bulldozer with one hand. I could've lifted it completely, but the creaking metal convinced me to let the thing live for another day. It was just too rigid to lift without breaking.

I'm sure it must've looked a little comical to see a 10 year old lift up a bulldozer with a single hand like some badly written fantasy, but their sheer awe seemed to overshadowed any amusement; except for Luke who was snickering quietly.

"Well, I'm more god than a demigod and I'm certain that I'm not a human, soo..."

It would've been possible to lift it up without breaking it had I done so from underneath it, but the terrified Mrs. Chase forbid me from the attempt. She looked so frightened that I didn't have the heart to tell her off.

Eventually we had to stop all our fun as the evening arrived. It was time for us to leave.

The Chases tried to saddle us with all sorts of things from food to clothes. But sadly we had to reject the offer. I was especially sad to leave behind her delicious fried chicken sandwiches, but needs must. In the end, they wished us good luck on our journey and told to stop by whenever we wanted. And of course...

"Please tell Annabeth we care for her and she'll always have a home with us. Tell her to atleast give us a chance." Mrs. Chase said called out as we readied ourselves.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Chase. I'm sure she'll come around eventually."

And with that, our time with the Chase family came to an end as the sun started setting.

Wrapping Luke up in strings of air again, I bend the wind to my will and took off in a burst of speed. And with a last wave towards the Chase family, we flew for the mount Tamalpais.

Home of the Hesperides and the golden Apples.

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