Upon hearing what Circe said, Nick immediately formed a plan of action. Firstly, he used his intent to amplify his voice.

  "Circe! It is not Athena that has come to seek your counsel today. I hope to ask for tutelage; in exchange, I carry knowledge and gifts." Nick said, trying to assuage Circe.

  "HA! Athena, you must think me stupid?! Taking on this ridiculous disguise now that I have caught you in the act. Since you are here now, don't think about leaving easily! I won't let this insult stand!" Circe said before waving her hand, causing the sea around the island to morph into gigantic monsters made out of the surrounding seawater that came barreling toward him at speeds close to the speed of sound.

  Nick saw that diplomacy was getting him nowhere and decided that showing the stick before giving the carrot was necessary.

  Even if Circe was more powerful than he expected, it was still an even match, though he would have to use his staff to even the playing field.

  He first used his prescience to investigate what it was exactly that she was doing here. It was obvious that she wasn't using chants, but her using intent-casting on this scale for such powerful effects would be equally improbable, as she was depicted as a sorceress first, Goddess second, not to mention that the sea was Poseidon's domain.

  So, there must have been some kind of mechanism he was unaware of that she was using to exert intent on this scale. However, before he could think much more about it, the creatures were about to reach him.

  Nick immediately sacrificed a feather and cast a Common Ranked Wind Element protection spell; the spell immediately took effect, and a gigantic, dense ball of wind appeared around his body.

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  And as the monsters tried attacking him, they were shredded by the raging winds contained inside his shield.

  This spell would last 3 minutes without interruption, thus gaining him valuable time to investigate and possibly stop whatever she was using.

  "Still relying on your daddy, Athena? I didn't know he took your pride as well as your balls!" Circe said, her smirk evident from her voice.

  Nick took note of that little nugget of information before promptly ignoring whatever else Circe was saying and focusing on cracking her magic.

  Upon using prescience to investigate the origin of the monsters, fragments of images appeared in his mind. A giant cavernous opening in the earth, a cave flooded with moss, covered with dense runic inscriptions, with a blue light floating like a miniature sun at the center of the cave.

  That was all that he was able to see before a pain not unlike a toothpick being shoved in his head flooded in, and he was forced to sever the connection.

  "ATHENA!!! CEASE YOUR PROBING!!" Circe screamed, the sound causing ripples in the air around her; however, this time her fury was overshadowed by a hint of fear appearing on her face.

  Given the context clues, Nick concluded that the pain that severed his connection to whatever he was seeing was some sort of protection mechanism that Circe created.

  Unfortunately for her, Nick had a photographic memory and was able to perfectly remember the runic inscriptions he saw.

  They described an impossibly complex ritual with symbolism and intent so complex it would take literal months of work to reconstruct it, but he didn't need to do that. He just had to figure out what it did.

  And his enhanced brain was able to conclude at least that much.

  The ritual was, in effect, a way for Circe to anchor her soul to the island and become, in effect, some sort of regional God.

  So long as the island was immortal, then so was she; this also explained her miraculous spells.

  But it also led to the implication that what he was seeing on the shore was actually just a puppet controlled by her consciousness.

  It wasn't so much that she was using intent to cast spells, but more so that she was commanding her body with her thoughts, just as the brain would command the fingers.

  Unfortunately for Nick, knowing this still didn't give him any sort of advantage in the fight, but upon thinking some more, he did figure out a strategy that he could use.

  Nick didn't need to win; his goal was to get her to calm down and convince her to teach him.

  So, he did the only sensible thing: he used magic to project his voice directly into Circe's ear." I am not Athena, I am her son, and if you do not teach me, I will leave and tell everyone your little secret."