Athena disliked Russell for two reasons. First, Russell had ruined her plans, directly or indirectly preventing her from obtaining Medusa's head.
Second, she had witnessed, like many other gods, the confrontation between Russell, Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon.
Her assessment was that, when it came to shamelessness, Russell was no less capable than Zeus. He was clearly poised to surpass his master.
It was terrible. Whenever Athena thought about there being two utterly shameless men on Divine Mountain, her head began to ache.
She knew why Zeus had brought Russell to Divine Mountain. He simply wanted to cultivate a god specialized in combat, sever the lingering issues from the Titanomachy, and incidentally intimidate the restless Hades and Poseidon.
The answer was obvious. The Hall of Gods appeared chaotic, but Zeus had it firmly under control.
The conflict between Russell and Ares had pointed straight at Queen of Heaven Hera. The older generation of gods had reveled in their misfortune, and Zeus, humiliated into fury, had vented his anger on them.
Everything had unfolded naturally and logically. The older gods had not even realized this was an organized, premeditated group operation. They naively believed Russell had made Zeus lose face, causing them to be dragged into it.
Athena saw it all and analyzed Russell's objective. On the surface, he was an Avenger who had come for Hera.
Considering his background, it was a reasonable conclusion with nothing wrong about it.
Yet Athena felt something was off. Russell was far too confident, intending to drag the Queen of Heaven down from her divine throne all by himself...
It was unrealistic. If there had been even the slightest chance of success, Apollo would have acted long ago.
Athena closed her eyes. She had a feeling that Divine Mountain would be very lively today. Russell