Disclaimer: I do not own the Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus series, Rick Riordan does. I am merely playing in his sandbox
Hey, I'm back from the dead. So, since I started Rise of a Divine Hero over a year ago, much of my thought process has changed (such as how old the gods are, and how I will be writing some of them), and my writing has improved. Thus, I decided to restart the story. Also, due to the extreme immense prevalence of Pertemis stories, from where Percy is a god to where Percy is a mortal, I'll actually be making Athena the love interest of Ophion/Percy. Well, let's see where this goes.
Chapter 1: Prophecy
Year: 40,000 B.C.E.
The heavens were dark overhead, with thick thunder clouds rumbling all but blotting out the sky. Through whatever miniscule patches existed between the skies was the blood red light of evening. Almost symbolic it was, of the blood shed there had been during the ten year war, a war which would later be referred to as the Titanomachy.
The war was ultimately a power struggle between a father and son, a usurpation brought into effect by a dying father and an infuriated mother. Unlike Kronos' quick destruction and supplantation of his own father, Ouranos, Protogenoi of the Sky, Zeus' attempt for the crown was by no means a simple assassination. Kronos, for all his attempts to avert the prophecy of doom confirmed by Gaea upon the Time King's reimprisonment of the Hecatoncheires and Cyclopes, always prepared himself for the possibility of a direct challenge for his throne.
Unfortunately, the Time King had been arrogant, thinking his very young son, having been a mere four hundred and ninety years at the time of his declaration of war, would quickly fall to the second and third generation Titans, the youngest of whom was many million years older than the upstart runt. Unfortunately, Zeus and his freed brothers and sisters proved themselves to be the children of the King and Queen of the Universe. Despite being domainless immortals, their gifts, divine essence, and raw power had proven enough to endure and repel anything that their cousins threw at them. Even worse, the upstarts had managed to sway some of their cousins, such as the Hyperion's whelps, Koios' shamless hussies of daughters, and two impudent sons of Iapetus, as well some of the third generation Titans, such as Krios' granddaughter Hecate, by his son Perses, and the four children of Styx, grandchildren through Krios through his son Perses.
Kronos still had not thought much of this. A dozen or so rebellious younger Titans, led by a five hundred year old deity - a laughable age - and his five siblings, who may as well have been newborns. Kronos had ordered his six loyal siblings to stay out of the fight. Kronos allowed the loyal children of his fools of brothers to commence the war under Atlas, Iapetus' mighty son. Kronos used the first eight or so years to pursue his traitorous hooligan of a wife Rhea, and the four siblings she convinced to stay out of the war: Oceanus, Tethys, Mnemosyne, and Themis. Yet his pursuits were to no avail. It was as if they had dropped out of the view of Father Sky, yet disappeared from the face of Mother Earth. And no, they were not in Oceanus' waters either, which Kronos and his marine allies had scoured.
However, the fool Atlas, for all his sky tearing and earth shaking strength, had not managed to crush the "Olympians," as they called themselves. When the pesky flies had been driven into a corner, Atlas relented - long enough for Zeus, Poseidon, and Aidoneus to trek down to Tartarus. And return with immensely powerful weapons, and Kronos' six least favorite brothers in tow. The last year had required the continued effort and perseverance of every one of Kronos' nephews, nieces, and brothers. As the budding chaos simmered explosively in the final year, Kronos fed on its power, bathing in it and growing stronger. When Kronos had reached a sufficient peak in power, he would destroy his children and all their allies in one blow.
Unfortunately, his nephews and nieces could not hold on long against the newly empowered Olympians. Assaulted and bombarded by Zeus' lightning bolts, as well as supplanted and destabilized by the power Poseidon's storm raising, Gaia-shaking, ocean bending trident, they were easy prey for the invisible, but ubiquitous aura of Tartaric terror radiating from the helm of Aidoneus, making them victims of the crevices opened by Aidoneus' bident. Crevices which led straight to Tartarus.
Kronos' brothers had managed to bring him a few of Zeus' allies, who had met a fate worse than mortal death at the hands of his trusty scythe. But even Kronos' own brothers, children of Sky and Earth, started to bend under the assault of the gods. Granted, Kronos was twice as powerful as the self-glorifying Hyperion, and more so than the rest of the foolish lot. And whilst the mere portion of his own power his children had inherited, as well as their Cyclopean weapons, allowed them to stand up to his brothers, it still puzzled Kronos how those incompetent fools had managed to lose to beings billions of years younger than him.
Which led him to his current predicament. Kronos stood in his divine form, a being of molten red and obsidian black form and energy (*1), with billowing clouds of grey fog and stream, as well as near blinding golden energy hugging his 1,500 foot tall form. Yet there was a slouch in his stance. The harsh golden orbs that served as his eyes were far dimmer than usually. And there was a haggard way in which he limped towards his three defeated opponents: three soon-to-be victims of his scythe.
Kronos raised the six hundred foot tall black handle, allowing the golden colored blade to take a reddish tone when bathed with the whatever pockets of light broke through the clouds.
"Aidoneus, Aidoneus," the monstrous Titan chided his eldest son, his voice sounding akin to the combination of an erupting volcano and what mortal would later call a Tier 10 earthquake on the Richter scale. "You are a sensible young deity, more sensible than the siblings you so fiercely defend. I offered you time and time again the chance to escape this destruction, to join me and reign as my prince."
Though sprawled upon the remains of the Titan palace, Aidoneus' obsidian eyes flared, his yellow-undertoned skin glowing golden with fury. He spat ichor at his monstrous father. "Sure, father," the black haired deity spat. "Why let me just join you as your prince, so you may slice me to bits with your scythe as a sleep. Oh wait, what are the benefits of being a prince of ruins, oh wise king."
Kronos attempted to laugh, but in his current predicament, it came out like a grimaced hack.
"Give up Kronos," implored a Caucasian skinned deity with sea green eyes, and also black of hair - Poseidon. His eyes pierced at Kronos, "You are not powerful enough to endure that, for all your might and power."
"I am Kronos!" the volcano looking humanoid spat, his voice shaking heaven and earth. "Most powerful son of Ouranos. Most powerful son of Gaia. Most powerful scion of the Elder Protogenoi! King of the Universe." the sky reeled under the power of his voice, then Kronos groaned loudly.
"Have you forgotten the power of the Moirai, the omniscient, all-reigning daughters of Nyx, almighty king," derided a female deity, also Caucasian with the sharp jade eyes of her mother, and dark, vibrant red hair matching the color of the sky. Hera, youngest and most powerful daughter of Kronos. "The sisters, who dictated that with the fall of your own murdered father that the sky would be held up by the power of your four brothers, brothers whose responsibilities you must take as they currently are getting acquainted with their new home in Tartarus!"
"Curse you!" Kronos roared. The sky jolted again, and Kronos slouched some more. With the imprisonment of his brothers, he had been forced to stop the sky from falling, lest it crush everything on the surface of Gaia. As the Titan of Time, he had managed to stop the sky from falling for a time, reducing the rate of its descent to a pace far slower than that of a turtle. Time enough to rescue his brothers and reinstall them in their posts once he dealt with his accursed children
"I am more powerful than any two of my brothers!" roared the King of the Titans. He took another step forward. "And I was far too much for even the three of you." Kronos chuckled.
"And for that, your power is fading old man," Poseidon scorned. "Taking on the three of us whilst holding the sky in place has massively drained your power, barely giving you the ability to stand, much less walk. You are doomed!"
"Doomed?" Kronos mockingly asked. "You think I'm doomed. If you haven't noticed, I am the only one here holding a weapon. The sea must have filled your brain with water since you got that three pointed spear. A spear I am holding." Kronos waved his left hand, which clutched to the obsidian black helm of Hades, a bident matching in color, a bright golden trident with blue and green energy and electricity racing on it, and Hera's brilliant white spear tipped with plasma. "Any last words?"
"Yes," Aidoneus snorted. Kronos looked at him amused. "Behind you,'" Aidoneus drawled. Kronos turned his head to his right, where he saw a nine hundred foot tall muscular Caucasian deity, with his massive right arm clutching a six hundred foot long shaft of blue-white energy. And then, the electric-blue eyed deity threw his weapon.
Usually, the Time Deity would have had more than enough time to dodge it. Yet, with his power being directed up at the sky, and whatever was left having been drained fighting three of his children, he had nothing to defend himself against the power of the Thunderbolt. A shaft of electricity with an energy output equal to an energy blast of the Elder Protogenoi Ananke. Though it could only be used once every two hours, one hurl of it was all Zeus needed.
An immense, all encompassing thunderous sound reverberated throughout the world, a sound which could only be described as if a mighty deity had been thrown from the top of the sky down to earth. A hapless Kronos sailed some three hundred feet in the air, jittering and shuddering from the shocks running through his body. The Titan King landed on his own throne, but with such force that it broke under him, joining the rest of the palace as useless rubble.
Drained, exhausted, and defeated, Kronos fell to his hands and knees, his form dimming from his powerful energy form, to his physical form. Yet instead of resembling a strong anthropomorphic being in the prime of his years, with glistening black hair and golden irises upon black sclera, his hair was white and long. His form, thin and frail.
Kronos, Titan of Time, King of the Universe for about 4.5 billion years, was defeated.
For good measure, and perhaps sadistic pleasure, Zeus threw two Cyclopean made lightning bolts at Kronos' form. These lightning bolts were patterned after Zeus' Thunderbolt. Yet, something about the atmosphere of Tartarus had made Zeus' Thunderbolt unreplicable in totality. These lightning bolts packed about one-sixth of the punch. However, the Cyclopes created many for the young Olympian to utilize.
Kronos' form shuddered as the first made contact with him. The second knocked him flat onto his back. Utterly defeated, Kronos looked up at his children with glossy eyes.
"What shall you do," Kronos asked, his voice a shadow of what it had been even minutes ago.
"I think that I shall rid the universe of you, as I have cleaned it of the presence of your brothers," Zeus' voice boomed.
"Ha, so you shall incarcerate me in the bowels of my uncle," Kronos chuckled, though very faintly. "I will be back, my very young son."
"Hmmph," Zeus thundered. "I do not think so. After all, in the billions of years since your father's, departure, has he come back?"
Kronos' already pale face somehow grew more pale. "You would attempt to use the power of the scythe against ME. It's MASTER!"
"Perhaps you are its master, Kronos. But you don't have the energy to telekinetically hurl a mound of mud, much less call your scythe to you," Zeus rebutted, his electric eyes racing with blue sparks.
Kronos looked desperately at his scythe, his eyes wide with fear as he stretched his hand towards it. To no avail.
Zeus laughed. His laugh resounded in the heavens, reverberating like thunder. "And no, Father. Prepare for your DESTRUCTION!"
"Wait!" called a voice. Aidoneus had risen from his feet, and was standing next to Zeus at the same height as his brother. Though still pale and shaking from the final battle, his eyes were firm and resolute. "I know your hate for Kronos. We all do, with the quality time we spent in his stomach. But we shouldn't slice him to bits. To separate the consciousness of a being, rend it into a million pieces, is a fate no immortal deserves. Not even him," Aidoneus' voice rang with confidence and knowledge. For he did know. All immortals receive a certain power or two, gifts if you will, that would influence their domains. One of Aidoneus' gifts was an influence and presidence over the life forces of beings. Even though he had experience a mere ten years out on Gaia's surface, as opposed to his younger brother's five hundred, Aidoneus had full knowledge and confidence over what he was saying.
Confidence which spilled over to Hera and Poseidon, who also dragged themselves to their feet and limped over. Hestia and Demeter flash teleported over from the concluded battles they had been engaged in as their four younger siblings had engaged Kronos.
"Please, brother Zeus," Hestia implored. "Do not repay violence with violence. Nothing good can come from a wicked deed."
"Wicked?" rumbled Zeus. "You would call it wicked to eviscerate this pathetic piece of trash? You of all people should want to rend apart his bowels, having been trapped in them for sixty-thousand years!"
An annoyed Zeus turned then to Aidoneus and his other siblings. "You five have only been walking this earth for ten years. I have four hundred ninety years more of experience. I have had to hid in muck, in the lowest of crevices, in the most obscene of hiding places due to his power lust. Due to the threat of his scythe. I think that our all-powerful sovereign should learn what it is to be subservient to his scythe. For my experience which has taught me that to establish peace, you do not leave conniving fiends meandering about."
Zeus turned back to Kronos, electric eyes flashing. Then withdrawn and pensive. Flickering in indecision. Zeus turned to a seventh deity that had made her way to the top of Othrys (or, at least the top after the peak had been sheared off by the month long final battle). Metis, the favorite daughter of Oceanus, and the wisest of all deities, made her way to Zeus' side. Zeus looked down at her, his electric-blue eyes into her ocean blue.
"What do you think I should do," asked Zeus, his eyes desperate for an answer.
Metis looked at him, and at Kronos. Her oak-wood brown hair blew to her right in the wind. She looked into Zeus' eyes, and knew what he was asking. He was not asking what he should do. He had already made his decision. His pent up hatred and frustration needed release. He was asking her for permission.
Metis looked again at the withered form of Kronos. The formerly all-powerful King of the Universe, on his knees. A cruel king towards the end, but one who had once been good. Perhaps Zeus dissecting him could start him down the same path. But Zeus was too willful for his own good sometimes, and if he did not get his way, the earth would be the one to suffer his wrath, now that he wielding lightning and the Thunderbolt. Zeus loved justice, and he desperately needed it.
'Better Kronos than the universe,' Metis thought. She then again met Zeus' eyes.
"Do what you feel is right," Metis replied.
Zeus' electric eyes flared, lightning and power racing within them. Zeus then began to glow, until he assumed his full energy form. A brilliant bright golden form, with white trails of electricity racing along them. Once Zeus' domains were officiated, Metis knew his power would grow immensely, and his form would become electric. For while Zeus had been born with a Gift for electricity, he would receive lightning.
Zeus' eyes, two sky blue orbs in this state, flickered over towards were Kronos' scythe was lying. Zeus moved over to pick it, as a deity cannot call another's weapon to their hand telekinetically.
Zeus then sauntered back, raising the six hundred foot tall scythe high above his head, it's golden blade about to taste the silver ichor of the Titan King.
"Zeus…" Aidoneus said, but was ignored.
Kronos looked up, then found whatever sliver of strength he had left to raise himself to a sitting position, then to a shaky stand.
"Do you see now, Aidoneus," Kronos warned. "Better would it been for you to have been at my side. See Zeus, see his stance, his walk. He is like me, when I seized the throne at five hundred years. Young, bold, powerful, and beyond the control of any of my siblings.
"He…" Poseidon started, but Kronos was on a role.
"You will all suffer under his reign," Kronos warned, raising a shaky finger. "If you think this shall be the extent of your division, know that this will be the moment when the six of you are most united."
Zeus then reached Kronos' position, and seized the withered deities' throat with his left hand, strangling him, and then hurling him to the ground.
The sky reeled and shook, threatening to fall upon the world.
Kronos coughed and hacked, "Would you destroy the world to get your revenge, Zeus?"
"No. Your mighty general shall come to my rescue." Zeus sneered. "Cottus, Gyges, Briareus," Zeus called. "It is time to do with Atlas what we discussed."
The three hundred handed ones, each standing 7,000 feet in height, each nodded their heads, and set off for the western reaches of the world, taking between them a limp, but protesting Atlas.
After a couple minutes, the sky stabilized. Kronos' face paled, knowing his time was up.
As Zeus approached him, with one intention in his eyes, Kronos glared at him: golden eyes flaring. "Know this Zeus. Just as I supplanted my own father, and just as you have supplanted yours, so to shall a son of yours overwhelm you. Mighty will the war be, and hard will you fight. But for naught, as this son will have a power greater than any you boast."
Zeus raised his scythe again, and swung it. But in one last instant, Kronos' golden eyes connected with the jade green of Hera.
'I pity you, my daughter,' the Titan King's voice sounded in her head. 'Of your siblings, you shall know the most despair under Zeus. You will find yourself wishing in one moment that I was still king, and that I had destroyed Zeus. But you will find strength…'
Then Kronos' yelled with an sky piercing scream.
*1. For Kronos' divine form, I imagined how he looks in Wrath of the Titans. For Kronos' physical form, I imagined how he looks in the Class of the Titans TV series, with the exception of his eyes being gold, not red, and his sclera being black.
So, what do you think? Not all the chapters will be this long. For this one, I had to do the final scene of the Titanomachy. Speaking of which, I am also doing another fanfiction which will actually cover the details of the Titanomachy, but under the Greek Mythology section. If you are interested, check it out.
This story will be more mature than Rise of a Divine Hero, with more blood, gore, and sex: emulating Greek Mythology to the fullest. Do not expect the common and basic tropes for the gods (Ares being a dumb brute, Aphrodite being a drooling fangirl, Zeus being stupid, etc.) . They are especially dangerous beings, whom are not to be taking lightly.