She had taken a second to formulate her thoughts but she was quick on her feet so I only had a few seconds to consider what she may say and how to respond to it. "But Zeus is a god! He's like you." She said, expressing innocence and naivety at me. I smiled at her, my facial expression conveying my mixed emotions as I realized that she was worried that the fact that Zeus was a god meant that we were alike.

"Rebecca, are you like your sister?" I asked her, opting to convey this to her in the simplest way I could. She turned to her sister and studied her for a second, her facial expression still teary-eyed, but now also somewhat focused.

"No, I'm not." Rebecca said, her voice softer and calmer now. I grinned, more genuinely now, and then nodded at her.

"Does that teach you something?" I asked her, hoping to guide her to a natural conclusion without holding her hand more than this. She considered what I said for a second. I had been too lax with her. I never hid my true nature from her or kept any secrets from her, but honestly, I must have gone wrong somewhere. I'll need to reeducate her. I mused, wondering to myself where my error had been.

"Yes." She told me, a few seconds after I asked her my question. I waited for her to continue to speak, as she had responded to me with just one word just now.

"It teaches me that not all dwarves are the same." She said, the look in her eyes one of childlike innocence and also childlike earnestness. I laughed gently at her response, before beginning to nod.

"And if not all dwarves are the same..." I said, gesturing using my hands to try and get her to expand on my sentence and complete it for me. She studied me for a few moments, her eyes following my hands.

"If not all dwarves are the same... then not all... gods are the same?" She said, having arrived at the conclusion I was leading her too without much difficulty. I chuckled and nodded at her. If nothing else she can logically follow clues to their destinations, which is good. I thought while a thin smile adorned my face.

She studied me. her eyes narrowed to thin slits as she did so. It was like she was attempting to determine if I'd fly off the handle like Zeus appeared to be in the painting. I was stoically calm and looked at her reassuringly.

After a tense few seconds, her apprehension passed. For now anyway. She began to smile softly at me, her eyes relaxing. And then she began to chatter.

"So wait... not all gods are alike? How... alike are the gods?" She asked. She was speaking frantically, and it was difficult to hear her individual words. Difficult, but not impossible. I thought about her question for a second, a grin on my face.

"I honestly don't know how alike the gods are. I never met them. All I know is how I am." I told her, opting once again for the truth. But I wasn't done talking just yet.

"I wouldn't randomly destroy things but that doesn't mean I'm non-violent. I won't lie to you, I am more than capable of violence." I said, my eyes flinting back to the painting depicting Zeus indifferently watching or even studying a burning community.

"I am also... an evil being." I told Rebecca, opting to assume she felt that Zeus, the deity in the painting, had left an impression on her that gods were evil. I was still talking to Rebecca, while considering the context of our conversation.

"But being evil doesn't mean killing things. At least... not necessarily." I told her, preferring that she have an honest understanding of me and my motivations. At this she backed away from me, her body language taking on a new tone, in so far as body language could do that. She even stiffened. I chuckled, understanding her sudden stiffness.

"Listen Rebecca... Have I ever hurt you?" I asked, my voice soft now. I kept my eyes trained on her face. She considered my question, but she didn't need too for long.

"No." She said. She was quiet while she answered my question, her voice soft and. I grinned at her, appreciating the honest simplicity of her answer.

"Look, Rebecca, I have told you what I am and about all of the things I've done. I have not kept any secrets from you. Nor will I. The things I've done, my goals, are evil. I want knowledge, worship, and power. As I've always told you." I told the dwarf. She was quiet while I spoke.

"I do not wish to inflict casual violence on random people. I don't want to maim, harm, and destroy. I am capable of doing those things. I am even quite good at it. But it's not what I want." I said, unafraid to admit my skills and knowing what I could and couldn't do.

"I want to gain power and knowledge. I am... ambitious." I confessed. I dug deep within myself and examined my emotions for a second before I considered what to say next.

What do I want? I asked myself, in the safety of my own mind. I thought about it for a few seconds.

I want... control. I realized. I want to be able to control my surroundings. So that I am never hijacked like I was when I first came here. I learned, after examining my own head for a second. It wasn't hard for me to realize that.

I also want power. If I have the power to read all minds, and if I can create all kinds of devils then I could build an empire unlike any anyone has ever seen. So that I can destroy my enemies. So that I never have to be afraid. I thought, grinning all the while.

An inter-planetary empire. One that spans entire dimensions. A mental image appeared in my head. One of entire worlds conquered by my forces, filled with thousands, millions, or even billions of worshipers of mine, generations who'd never know what life was like before me. Before Althos.

And I want knowledge. More than anything else. Knowledge. I want to know what killed the gods and the other higher beings. I want to know Raverangos' true name. I want to know about the Heart of Darkness. I want to know what caused my birth. I want to know the true nature of the Dark Saint. About the Olympians. About the Titans. About what secrets Paimon has hidden in his brain. I want to know... everything. I told myself, my hunger for knowledge reasserting itself, having grown dimmer in the wake of months of war.

"Listen Rebecca, hurting things doesn't often get me my goals. I fight in self-defense, but I don't just destroy communities." I told her. "I want knowledge. I want to know everything I can know. I want power. I want the power to do whatever I want. And I want control." I was silent after telling her that.

And then I told her of the first few days of my life. A tale I had told her in the past, but never with so much detail and candidness as I was about to.

A few minutes later Rebecca stared at me. There was a new emotion in her gaze. One of awe. And one of sympathy. I had just finished telling her my story, the story of the first time I encountered vermin. The first time I healed someone. How I defeated Raverangos. And so much more.

"Wow..." She said, breathlessly. A few seconds of silence had passed between us. I watched her, studying her for a few moments. She was quietly assessing her thoughts.

"Althos... creator. What you just told me is incredible." She told me, truly astounded by what I had revealed to her. I told her of everything and everyone. From the goblins in the forest of my birth to the domains and subdomains that I could hear and interact with. I could tell that she was awed by both my story and the candidness with which I had revealed everything to her.

"Your life has been one of so many... greats. Great power. Great fear. Great ignorance and knowledge in equal measure. Great triumphs and great battles." She said, speaking confidently for the first time since she had first seen the painting of Zeus.

What is that painting anyway? I might as well find out, after all the grief its caused... I wondered, shortly after Rebecca was done talking to me. The young dwarf was awed by my story and needed some time to process it.

I looked at the painting and used Appraisal on the thing. The notification I received was a grisly one.

[New Item Notification Alert: The Fate of Tantalus

This painting depicts the death of Tantalus. Tantalus was a son of Zeus, who foolishly decided to test the gods.

Tantalus was a demi-god, as in half-mortal, half-god, king of a regal community and was blessed by the gods themselves. Not only did the other children of Zeus get along with their half-sibling, but even the older Olympians, Zeus' siblings, found the mortal king quite pleasant. They dined with him and trusted him, both of which were incredibly rare for mortals. And one day, after years of getting along with the gods, the king grew arrogant and foolhardy.

He felt curious about whether or not the gods would detect his misdeeds if he opted to kill his own son and feed the boy to the gods. He lacked impulse control and decided to act on this scheme. When the boy's cooked flesh was presented to the gods they immediately took notice and fled his home in rage at his cruelty and hubris. All of the gods, aside from Zeus that is.

Zeus was outraged that his son killed his grandson, and so the chief of the Olympians opted to act. Zeus took to the skies above Tantalus's city and struck it with several of his mighty thunderbolts. This destroyed the city and sent Tantalus' soul spiraling down into Tartarus, where some say it remained at least until the end of the mythic age.

This painting depicts a triumphant Zeus, enjoying the splendid beauty of his thunderous weapon. In it he floats lazily over a series of burning buildings, studying both the sights of the flames plaguing the settlement and the power of his weapon.]

Zeus killed someone for killing their own son and trying to feed the son's remains to them? I thought, surprised that there was a somewhat decent reason for the act of murder, as opposed to when he tried to stop Athena from being born out of fear of the possibility that he'd meet the same fate as his father and grandfather at her or another child's hands. But that doesn't really justify decimating an entire community. At least not unless the people involved in the murder were the people of the city itself. I quickly told myself, snapping back into rational thinking.

I looked up at Rebecca and then told her what the painting depicted in context. She listened to me and then began to laugh. The sound of one of emotional exhaustion, a laugh you heard from someone who had felt countless emotions in a rather limited period of time. Shortly after she began to laugh, I also began to laugh, the two of us melting away our past, tense emotions. As we laughed I spoke once more.

"I really should have just started this off by checking out the painting." I confessed, in between peels of laughter.

"Next time I'll start us off with that." I assured Rebecca, and to a much smaller extent myself. Rebecca nodded at me, tears forming in her eyes from laughter. I knew in my heart that this wasn't over, as it would be challenging for Rebecca to accept that her creator was evil, but for now it felt as though the worst has passed. Due in no small part to my own lack of foresight and lack of clarity when it came to investigating the painting.

We laughed at my silly behavior, for a few minutes. At the end of our bout of laughter, we were joined by the rest of the party in the tiny section of the gallery we were in. When we were joined by the rest of my comrades, worshippers, and familiars I looked at everyone, observed them, and then wordlessly urged us onwards. Deeper into the Parthenon.

We arrived at the exit out of the gallery after walking for a few minutes. And we proceeded through it without much fanfare, entering into another section of the dungeon when I finally received a notification about what the dungeon wanted me to do inside of it.

[Hello Althos Are you ready to begin your education?] The dungeon asked, a cheery inflection subtly infiltrating its otherwise smoothly mechanical accent. At that point, just outside of the gallery, my followers turned as one to look me dead in the face. Their gazes were filled with curiosity. They waited, with bated breath, to hear what I was about to say in response to that. In response to the offer made by the dungeon.