After a short while, Athena came back with a strange tool in her hand.

It was gray and rectangular, and it folded in two, revealing a black screen and a….keyboard?

Alex was flabbergasted, seeing a full-on laptop in Athena’s hands.

“What is that?!” Alex anxiously questioned Athena.

She responded, “This is what Hermes used to bring you here. He found this thing being sold in Asphodel and discovered he could contact your world with it.”

“WHAT? I was brought here using a computer? And how did you make it work?” Alex was extremely puzzled at this.

“Oh, we discovered that Father Zeus’ lightning makes this tool work. So every time Hermes used it, he would just anger Father enough and have the lightning bolts strike it.”

“And once, it seemed the lightning was too strong, as it broke it. And that was the day you came.”

Alex still didn’t fully understand the mechanism behind a laptop transporting him from one world to the other, but he asked, “And, why did you bring it?”

On the other hand, Athena was now the one confused, as she asked him, “Weren’t you going to Hephaestus’s place to repair this?”

‘That wasn’t my main goal, but…fine.’ Alex pondered. He informed Athena of his meeting with Prometheus and she nodded in understanding.

“I’m glad to know Prometheus is doing well…It has been so long.” Athena lamented with nostalgic eyes.

“Well..let me show you the way.” She said as they left the temple.

Apparently, Hephaestus didn’t live on any of the mountain peaks, and instead inhabited deep within one of the western mountains, next to a nearby volcano.

They walked west, in a direction he’s never been before in Olympus.

Passing through a forest and more mountain peaks, the somewhat verdant fauna disappeared, and the ground here was covered in a layer of ash.

The rock was turning darker and darker and Alex could feel some sort of particulate matter in the air, which made it a slight bit harder to breathe.

“Alex, you were planning to visit Hephaestus on your own despite not even knowing where he lives? And even if you did, he wouldn’t let you enter and just chase you out.” Athena jokingly said.

Alex sighed and rubbed his head in embarrassment.

As they were speaking, Athena halted in front of the entrance to a cave. The air was somewhat distorted and he could feel an immense heat emanating from the cave.

Athena entered the cave and told him, “Come on in.”

Alex reluctantly entered and in fact, it was unpleasantly hot inside.

After navigating through the cave for a few minutes, they found a metal door that blocked their passage.

Suddenly, in the corner of his eyes, Alex perceived something moving and was alarmed.

It was a….robot?

When it was fully in sight, Alex realized that it was a moving machine, that was albeit very rustic compared to the robots from his time.

Nonetheless, Alex was shocked that they even had something like this in this era.

The robot was made of metals and as it moved, its various gears and mechanisms made clanking sounds.

It halted in front of them and spoke, “IDENTIFY Y-OURSELVES.”

The ‘robot’ seemed to have a very unadvanced voice box, as its voice was extremely mechanical and barely intelligible.

Athena seemed to notice his astonishment, as she commented, “Hephaestus was always extremely ahead of his time with his creations. This little toy is one of those.”

The ‘little toy’ in question, then put out its metal arms in front of them.

On its hand, there were three metal molds of different fingerprints.

“One for me, one for Prometheus, and one for him,” Athena said as she put her finger on one of the fingerprints.

It fit perfectly and the bot then went by the door and knocked violently.

Suddenly, the door opened. As it turned out, the door was composed of two separate metal gates, that were pushed open by two similar ‘robots’ on the inside using levers.

Inside the door was a long tunnel. The ambient temperature was getting a bit unbearable, as Alex was sweating buckets, and Athena seemed to be in a similar predicament.

The two then heard steps approaching them and a voice speaking, “Who’s there?”

As the person approached them, the owner of the voice was now visible.

In all accounts, he looked like an ordinary middle-aged man with a beard. He was very muscular, but his face and appearance were very mundane and not those Alex had come to associate with gods.

His eyes, however, were a fiery orange.

The man looked at him for a second before looking at Athena and speaking in a hoarse voice, “Athena, it’s you…”

“It’s been a while, Hephaestus.”

Hephaestus then led them further inside the tunnel where they found various living facilities and robots similar to the ones from earlier were performing various tasks.

Inside was also a hall that was, surprisingly, lit up by lava.

There seemed to be some kind of special glass that protected the room from the lava, except at one chimney-like structure, where lava was flowing into a wide container.

Next to the structure were an anvil and a hammer, and there were many deadly-looking weapons and intricate tools thrown about in the hall.

“Welcome to my workstation.” Hephaestus held his hand to his chest, proudly.

“I’ve been here a million times.” Athena chuckled as she fidgeted the sharp weapons in her hand and swung them threateningly.

Hephaestus nodded and then turned his attention to Alex.

“So, who’s the boy?” Hephaestus sized him up and down, making Alex nervous.

“My son. He was recently in the Underworld and has news regarding Prometheus.” Athena stated.

Hephaestus sighed and asked him, “Is my old friend doing any well?”

Alex nodded and said, “He seemed to be doing extremely well. He asked me to inform you of his well-being and to not live like a hermit.”

The man rubbed his head and complained, “Thing is, whenever I go out, Mother Hera makes life very difficult, saying it’s my fault that stepfather is chasing other women due to my ‘behavior’. And I…like it here.”

Athena rolled her eyes.

Hephestus continued, “But thank you, boy. Do you need anything?”

Athena said, “Yes, could you repair this for him?”

She passed him the laptop, and he took out a magnifying glass and opened up the laptop.

“WOW, this is extremely intricate and ahead of this time. This circuitry…The materials…It will take a lot of time to even understand this, and only then can I begin to attempt repairing it.”

Alex wasn’t as disappointed as he thought he would be.

‘Perhaps my attachment to Earth is waning away?’ He wondered.

Hephestus entered one of the corridors to the place and put the laptop there before coming back, with jewelry in his hand.

It was a silver bracelet, and colorful jewels were embedded in its sockets.

It was gorgeous, and Alex found his aestheticism reacting to it.

“Can I ask a favor of you?” Hephaestus said to him.

Alex nodded, but his attention was still on the bracelet.

“Could you take this to my mother, and tell her it was made by me? It has been inconvenient to obtain some materials with her restricting my movement.” He informed him.

Athena intervened and said, “I’ll take care of it, he doesn’t need to meet her at his current strength.”

“That would be excellent…Thank you, Athena.”

Athena nodded and tugged at him, waking him up from his trance.

“So, boy, since that tool of yours is going to take long to repair, do you want something else in the meantime?” Hephaestus turned to him.

Alex thought about it for a bit before he got an idea.

He turned to Athena and there was a tacit understanding between them as she nodded.

“Can I get, Essence?” Alex asked nervously.

Hephaestus seemed astonished at the request but he nodded and left the hall.

After some time, he came back with a gourd in his hand. Even the gourd he made was stellar in appearance and looked aesthetically pleasing.

Alex thanked him, and with that, their visit to the god of forging and metallurgy was over.

________________________________________________

As they were climbing back home, Alex was curious about something.

“Why can’t I meet Hera?” He asked.

“Father Zeus might be fearsome, but stepmother is like….a snake. You’d have to meet her to understand.”