Athena's Butcher

Born without a visible divine mark, Leandros was cast out by his father, the archon of Myrion, and raised in the mountains by the retired hero Theron. Now a humble sacrificial butcher, he descends with half of Athena's owl token to search for his family. After saving his sister Callista, Leandros is pulled into a brutal contest for Myrion's heroic seat, where his worn butcher's blade reveals the dormant power of the Aegis bloodline. His return reunites him with his mother, Daphne, but also exposes a conspiracy built on false prophecy, stolen sacred rites and a traitor from Theron's past. When the masked assassin Nysa destroys his divine channels, Leandros must rebuild his power with the sacred fire of those he has chosen to protect. At Delphi, he faces Menoites, rescues his mother from a blood sacrifice, and proves that a true hero is defined not by a god's mark, but by the lives he refuses to abandon.