Zeus and the Oracle

The sea breeze of Themyscira carried the fresh scent of grass and trees as it swept across the bluestone training ground.

Diana Prince had changed into a flaxen battle skirt. With a wooden training sword in hand, she was locked in combat with three Amazonian warriors.

Her movements were incredibly fierce, and the sound of the wooden sword slicing through the air rang out without pause.

Her gaze remained sharp, but deep within it was a trace of distraction that was difficult to detect.

Every move carried a deliberately vented frustration.

After a dozen or so exchanges, Diana used a deft motion to knock two wooden swords from the hands of her three opponents. During the parry against the last one, however, Diana failed to hold back her strength and smashed the warrior's wooden sword in half.

The warrior whose sword had been broken seemed frightened by Diana's momentum. She stumbled back two steps before falling heavily onto the ground.

The other two hurriedly helped the somewhat stunned warrior to her feet. The three of them looked with concern at the slightly panting Diana. Without saying much, they merely saluted silently before leaving one after another.

Diana stood dazed for a moment, then lowered her sword and remained motionless. Fine beads of sweat had gathered at her temples, and her chest rose and fell slightly.

She was no longer the inexperienced girl who had stood on this training ground several centuries ago.

If she had not restrained herself from using her Divine Power, there were probably only a few people on Themyscira who could serve as her sparring partners.

She raised her eyes toward the boundless sea in the distance. The sea breeze stirred her long black hair, yet the confusion deep in her eyes did not lessen in the slightest.

This was already her third day back on Themyscira.

After hurriedly leaving Boston, she had plunged straight back into the land that had raised her. During the day, she either sparred with her fellow Amazonians on the training ground until she exhausted herself, or sat alone at the edge of the cliff, staring blankly at the sea.

"Diana."

A gentle yet dignified voice came from behind her.

Queen Hippolyta wore the same flaxen dress and approached at a leisurely pace, her eyes filled with concern.

She had personally witnessed her daughter's unease over the past few days and had long since understood that Diana was troubled by more than simple homesickness or fatigue.

Diana turned around and gave a slight bow. She put away her wooden sword and spoke in an even tone.

"Mother."

Hippolyta walked to her side and gazed out at the sea with her.

"You've spent so long in human society. I thought you had already adapted to life there, and had even found a place of your own..."

Diana's thoughts grew slightly unsettled. A faint chill from the Guardian Bracelet on her wrist helped her regain her composure.

"It isn't a problem with human society."

Diana's voice was somewhat hoarse.

"I've encountered a problem unlike anything before. I don't know how I should choose."

"A problem?"

Hippolyta pressed her.

"Is the Justice League in crisis, or has someone hurt you?"

Diana shook her head and avoided her mother's probing gaze.

"Mother, I'm fine. I just need some time to think by myself and properly relax."

Hippolyta looked at Diana's profile and sighed helplessly.

She understood her daughter, and she also knew that Diana was no longer merely her daughter. She was Wonder Woman, someone who needed to stand on her own in certain areas.

"No matter what you can't figure out, you can tell me. I only hope you can be happy, rather than like this."

The queen's words were filled with affection. Warmth spread through Diana's heart, and she stepped forward to gently embrace her mother.

"I understand, Mother. I'm sorry for making you worry."

Hippolyta patted her back, then turned to leave. Before departing, she still looked back at her, concern filling her eyes.

Only after her mother's figure disappeared from sight did Diana return to the edge of the cliff. Just as she was about to calm herself, the Divine Power within her suddenly began to fluctuate violently.

An inexplicable weakness surged through her. She staggered and grabbed the stone sculpture beside the bonfire, her face turning deathly pale.

Her Divine Power originated from her adherence to "justice," bound to the innate divinity of justice.

Could I have been too harsh toward a child who had no choice?

Just as Diana's self-doubt deepened, the Guardian Bracelet on her wrist suddenly gave off a rapid buzzing, and its light flared brightly.

This was a warning of an enemy invasion!

"Who?"

Diana instantly came to her senses and whipped around. Beneath the shade of the trees not far away, a familiar figure slowly emerged.

It was a man clad in black Battle Armor. Ferocious thorn patterns were engraved across it, gleaming with a cold metallic sheen.

In the blink of an eye, the Battle Armor silently vanished from the man's body, leaving behind only a blond man in a gray suit.

"This outfit really is more comfortable."

The man stretched lazily. He drew one hand back to his waist and used the index finger and thumb of the other to rub the golden mustache curling above his lips.

Diana naturally recognized who had come, but she had never expected him to dare appear directly on Amazonian territory!

"Ares! How dare you violate our agreement and set foot in the mortal world again!"

Diana flung out the Lasso of Truth from her waist. It wrapped around the Vulcan Sword she had left beneath a tree before entering the training ground and pulled it flying back to her.

Only after Diana grasped the Vulcan Sword did the terror in her heart ease slightly.

She had clearly forced Ares to swear never to interfere in the mortal world again. Why had he suddenly done something that violated a divine oath?

Ares lowered the arm that had been stroking his mustache and sneered.

"Violate our agreement? I never violate agreements. This is Zeus's command!"

"Zeus's command?"

Diana frowned, confusion filling her heart.

"Why did he send you here? Though there is conflict in the mortal world, the gods have no need to interfere."

Suddenly, Diana remembered that Shane had killed the mortal vessel of the Goddess of Discord.

"Is this because of the Goddess of Discord? Though her divine vessel was destroyed, she hasn't completely fallen. Do you intend to use this to provoke war?"

"The Goddess of Discord?"

Ares waved his hand and looked with interest at his half-sister, who stood ready for battle.

"Eris is still asleep and hasn't fully revived. Besides, she isn't worth Zeus specially sending me here for."

As his voice fell, Ares lightly stepped forward. The sea breeze, which had carried the fresh scent of vegetation and a hint of salt, suddenly fell still.

"The Golden Apple Eris lost not only carried the gods' Divine Power and magic, but also contained a portion of the authority over discord personally bestowed by Zeus back then."

"Yet a mortal not only unlawfully occupied the Golden Apple's Divine Power and magic, but somehow also firmly sealed away that small portion of the authority over discord. That is blasphemy against the gods!"

Diana instinctively wanted to refute him.

It was not as if divine artifacts had never been left behind in the mortal world. As long as Zeus had but a thought, the authority contained within an artifact could return to the Divine Realm at any time.

Just how did Shane manage it...

"Even so, Zeus shouldn't have sent you to interfere in human society!"

"Interfere?"

Ares looked as though he had heard a joke.

"The gods never violate their oaths. We have no intention of interfering in the mortal world. We merely intend to reclaim what belongs to the gods and, while we're at it, punish that blasphemous mortal."

He slowly extended his right hand. A string of golden runes appeared in his palm, and as they revolved, they radiated a sacred and imposing aura.

"And something like this can be done entirely within the Divine Realm."

At first, Diana did not recognize those runes. She was only a Demigod, and she had grown up on Themyscira from childhood. She did not know many of the gods' basic secrets.

But when the golden runes suddenly shot out and coiled toward Diana like chains—

The bloodline-born pressure immediately revealed the truth of the runes to her.

"Zeus's Oracle?!"

Diana tried to swing her sword and sever it, only to discover that her Divine Power had been suppressed by the Oracle and could not be summoned at all.

Immediately afterward, the Lasso of Truth at her waist flew out on its own. Under the Oracle's control, it bound her tightly, and the Vulcan Sword fell to the ground with a clang.

"No!"

Diana struggled with all her strength, but it was useless.

Ares stepped forward and seized her arm, black radiance rising around his body.

When the light faded, the two of them had vanished together from the cliffside, leaving behind only the Vulcan Sword on the ground and a sheet of parchment that slowly drifted down through the air as the sea breeze began to blow again.