"I think there's a misunderstanding. We don't know who this Angra Mainyu is." Alex spoke truthfully.

"LIES! LIES! You work for him! Lord Mithra, in the Sun Temple in Parsa, will vanquish you!" The king refuted their claims.

Alex turned to Hermes, only to gasp when he saw that the veins in his head were visible and that his eye was twitching.

Hermes restrained his anger and told Alex, "There's no way of getting through to him, Alex."

"Let's go, Hermes." Alex felt like there would be a catastrophe if they stayed in this place.

"Alex, I will not let anyone associate Olympus with some devil's cult."

"Hermes, let's go, we can solve this later." Alex tried to calm down Hermes.

The latter nodded and Alex turned to the three merchants who were shaking in a corner of the room, "You three, move, you'll be killed if you stay here."

Following their dispute with the king, they flew away from the palace and back into the house of the kind couple.

Alex left the angered Hermes outside and entered to bid his goodbyes to the couple.

He subtly gave them a blessing and after that, the two flew outside of the city.

As Alex looked at the sunny landscape, he commended Nyx's ability to hide yesterday's fight, as there were no traces of it.

Hermes looked at him and commented, "That's a nice-looking ruby, where did you get it?"

Alex coughed repeatedly and said, "I dug it down, hmm, in Babylon! Yes, Babylon!"

"That aside, we're far enough from the city, we can use the chariot now...?"

Hermes nodded and they landed. As usual, he threw the mini-chariot on the ground and it grew in size until it could fit the two of them.

They got on the seats and the chariot swiftly flew out into the horizon.

Alex noticed that they weren't going exactly east, and inquired, "Umm, Hermes, where are we going?"

Hermes clenched his hand on the chariot and declared, "We're going to the Sun Temple in Parsa."

Alex perceived little details such as how Hermes' blinking increased in frequency, his clenched fists and he concluded he was still angry.

"Are you sure? You don't seem in the best state to meet another god."

"Alex, I feel my very best, I have never felt this good in all of these centuries of living," Hermes spoke with wide eyes.

_________________________________

After flying for quite some time, the scenery below changed from a rocky desert into a fertile valley.

Within this fertile land in the middle of the desert, it was to be expected that there would be a large city, and they were right.

This was Parsa, a city more commonly known as Persepolis.

From here, they could see the intricate statues and massive temples very clearly.

Alex exclaimed in awe at the beautiful city.

It was partitioned into two parts.

One part of the city seemed to be a religious and bureaucratic center, and it contained all of the temples and colossal architecture.

The other part seemed to hold the lower-class residents of the city and comprised more mundane architecture and buildings.

Hermes didn't stop at the urban center and instead directly made his way towards a massive temple-like structure in the former part of Parsa.

'He seems so tense...' Alex commented on his friend's attitude.

The chariot was fast under the searing sun, and they quickly reached the entrance to the structure and landed.

The two got off of the chariot and made their way to the tall gates of the temple.

Three people guarded the entrance.

They were wearing loose white robes and a piece of white fabric covered their heads. When they saw them, they stepped back and said, "Yunanites! What is your purp-

"This is the Sun Temple, isn't it? Take me to Mithra." Hermes interrupted them and unfolded large wings from his back to scare them.

The three panicked and anxiously ran into the insides of the structure.

Following this, they came back with an extra person. It was an elderly man, wearing the same robes as them.

The man looked wise and his deep wrinkles spoke of his age.

He faintly spoke, "You wish to see Lord Mithra? Enter."

The three people seemed to disagree and argued with the elderly man but he simply answered them, "Lord Mithra will observe injustice and pass upon them retribution."

'Why is everyone acting like we're murderous tyrants???' Alex didn't like the feeling of being vilified.

Hermes didn't seem to have any similar concern, and instead, he swiftly entered without waiting for Alex.

Alex followed suit and they found themselves in a courtyard of sorts.

There were priest-looking people who wore similar attire to the guards and they all surrounded a large fire in the center of the courtyard.

The elderly man bowed to the large fire and said submissively, "Lord Mithra, you have visitors."

"Is that the case?" A deep voice spoke from within the fire.

Suddenly, a flaming silhouette got out of the fire.

It was a young man. He had dark skin and golden irises. His head was covered by a golden crown that had protruding spikes from every direction, that looked like a drawing of the sun's rays.

The young man looked at Hermes and Alex, then frowned.

"Olympians?"

Hermes glared at the young man and said, "Yes, I'm the messenger of Olympus, Hermes."

"Well...Hermes, well met. What is your purpose in my temple?" Mithra smiled magnanimously and softly asked.

"I come as a representative of Olympus to discuss how the monarchs of your land treat passing Yunanites," Hermes answered.

Mithra genuinely seemed confused and replied, "I do not know what you are talking about, we treat all of Ahura Mazda's creations equally."

"HAHAHAHAHAHA, is that why the Yunanites living under the king that YOU appointed are all brutally executed..?" Hermes raised his eyebrows.

"I am not aware of this. Our dealings with Olympus were all rectified after Alexander conquere-

"Can you all stop speaking of Alexander? I don't think a mortal represents Olympus's values and justifying your methods with his own is a false approach." Alex interjected.

Hermes nodded and exclaimed, "It seems weird that you have let a mortal affect so many of your decisions, is that how your pantheon runs?"

Mithra turned to the elderly man from earlier and asked him, "Dariush, are their words correct? Has the Shah Arsak wrongly spread our teachings?"

The elderly man Dariush kowtowed and spoke, "Lord Mithra, it is correct that the Yunanites are prosecuted in our lands. However, they are the servants of the devil Angra Mainyu, and their fake gods spread the evil to all of Parthia."

Out of a sudden, the large fire at the center of the courtyard ignited brighter and brighter and Mithra seemed furious.

Mithra was a god of light and the sun.

The sun was mostly a bringer of life but also, short-tempered.