Demiurge (Pjo SI)
By: Allen1996
[NSFW] - Demiurge (Pjo SI) by Allen1996
Status: ongoing
Published: 2023-06-08
Updated: 2024-04-11
Words: 141291
Chapters: 34
Original source: https/forum./threads/22674
Exported with the assistance of
Demiurge (Pjo SI)
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 1
Camp sucked. Ever Since I have been claimed, mostly everyone treated me like someone with a rare disease. The home I thought I had gained wasn't feeling like one anymore.
Nobody mentioned the hellhound, but I got the feeling they were all talking about it behind my back. The attack scared everybody. It sent two messages: one, that I was the son of the Sea God; and two, that monsters would stop at nothing to kill Percy Jackson. They could even invade a camp that had always been considered safe.
The only people that were still acting normal with me were Luke and Grover. All of this made me wish that none of those demigod's things was real. I wanted to wake up and realize that I had imagined all of this, that it was a crazy dream instead of me actually experiencing those things.
I wanted to be on the beach at Montauk, relaxing and spending time with my mom. All of this was so unfair.
I wished I wasn't a demigod. I wished I was a normal if troubled boy that only had to worry about school and his stepfather.
Talking about said stepfather, my mom and I wouldn't have to deal with Gabe if I hadn't been a demigod. My mom accepted his abuse and horrible treatment of her because of me, because she needed to hide my demigod scent.
Grover had told me that my mother had chosen to marry smelly Gabe because he smelled so horrible that his scent would mask any demigod's scent from monsters.
My mother was the kindest and strongest person in the world and she didn't deserve any of this. My mother had told me that my dad cared so why wasn't he there? Why didn't he help when he could have?
He was one of the Big Three, one of the most powerful among Gods and he did nothing. A big part of me understood and agreed with Luke. Gods didn't care when they should but another part of me, the childish one wanted to believe that there was a reason why my dad didn't help. I wanted to believe what my mother had told me, that I was wanted and not just the result of a lustful urge of a God.
All of those things angered me and made me feel helpless so I ignored them. I threw myself into the insane and exhausting sword lessons of Luke. I tried to understand all of the Greek lessons even with Annabeth's mean stares and my dyslexia making it almost impossible even in Greek to learn as much as I wanted.
I knew somebody at camp resented me because one night I came into his cabin and found a mortal newspaper dropped inside the doorway, a copy of the New York Daily News opened to the Metro page. The article took me almost an hour to read, because the angrier I got, the more the words floated around on the page.
BOY AND MOTHER STILL MISSING AFTER
FREAK CAR ACCIDENT
BY EILEEN SMYTHE
Sally Jackson and her son Percy are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family's badly burned '78 Camaro was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof ripped off and the front axle broken. The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred feet before exploding.
Mother and son had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circumstances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing
unusual around the time of the accident.
Ms Jackson's husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepson, Percy Jackson, is a troubled child who has been kicked out of numerous boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past.
Police would not say whether son Percy is a suspect in his mother's disappearance, but they have not ruled out foul play. Below are recent pictures of Sally Jackson and Percy. Police urge anyone with information to call the following toll-free crime-stoppers hotline.
The phone number was circled in black marker.
I wadded up the paper and threw it away, then flopped down in my bunk bed in the middle of my empty cabin.
"Lights out," I told myself miserably.
That night, I had my worst dream yet.
I was running along the beach in a storm. This time, there was a city behind me. It wasn't New York.
The sprawl was different: buildings spread farther apart, palm trees and low hills in the distance. About a hundred yards down the surf, two men were fighting. They looked like TV wrestlers, muscular, with beards and long hair.
Both wore flowing Greek tunics, one trimmed in blue, the other in green. They grappled with each other, wrestled, kicked and head-butted, and every time they connected, lightning flashed, the sky grew darker, and the wind rose.
I had to stop them. I didn't know why but I knew that I had to do so. But the harder I ran, the more the wind blew me back, until I was running in place, my heels digging uselessly into the sand.
Over the roar of the storm, I could hear the blue-robed one yelling at the green-robed one, Give it back! Give it back! Like a kindergartner fighting over a toy.
The waves got bigger, crashing into the beach, spraying me with salt. I yelled, "Stop it! Stop fighting!" The ground shook. Laughter came from somewhere under the earth, and a voice so deep and evil it turned my blood to ice.
"Come down, little hero," the voice crooned. "Come down!" The sand split beneath me, opening up a crevice straight down to the centre of the earth. My feet slipped and when I thought I would be swallowed by the darkness, I was saved when my arm was grabbed by the guy with the green Greek tunic.
With a wave of his hand, the apocalyptic scene vanished, and the darkness under my feet trying to swallow me disappeared as if nothing had happened.
Before I was now a peaceful beach as if everything that I had seen happening was just an illusion or a delusion of mine.
The green wrestler freed my arm and I fell on the now sandy beach under me.
"Hello Percy, I wanted to speak with you" I almost didn't answer. I knew who this was before he even talked. He had black hair, a neatly trimmed black beard, a deep tan, and sea-green eyes that were surrounded by sun crinkles that told one he was prone to smiling. He looked like me or it would be accurate to say instead that I looked like him. This was my dad.
"Yes sir" I answered him. He was my Father but could I really call him such? Would he see it as an insult if I did? Even I knew that Poseidon was known for his mercurial and switching mood. It seemed I did an error because his eyes changed, they were like a kaleidoscope of madness whispering to me, trying to drown me. They weren't the familiar green eyes that he had mere moments ago and shared with me.
It was worse than what I saw in the eyes of Mr D. It made me remember that before me was one of the oldest and strongest Olympians, something beyond human understanding
It only lasted a second even though it felt like an eternity and his eyes went back to their sea-green colour.
He sighed "I guess I deserve that". His voice sounded sad. I had just met my father for the first time and I had already done something wrong. 'Good job Percy' I thought sarcastically.
He sat on the sand. "Would you like to sit with me, Percy?" He asked me. I nodded dumbly and sat at his side.
There were so many things I wanted to say, that I wanted to ask. I wanted to scream at him, ask him why he wasn't there. I didn't ask any of those things. I instead asked him "What is happening Lord Poseidon? Where are we?"
The Lord of the Ocean wasn't looking at the sea anymore. He was looking at me as if he was dissecting me piece by piece. He finally answered "Right now we are within the domain of Hypnos. What you were seeing before could be called a vision, an interpretation of the true things happening in the real world and filtered by your brain. Because I was one of the subjects of the vision and because of my abilities, I was able to hijack it to speak with you."
I knew that Gods and therefore demigods existed and that we were capable of doing things mortals weren't able to do but knowing and experiencing something are two different things. What he told me was straight out of what I would see watching the X-men on TV.
"What did you want to talk about Sir" I questioned him. I was curious about the reasons he did all of this. I wanted to know why he wanted to talk to me after all this time.
"You can call me Dad you know," he said while putting his hand on the back of his neck. "It's also fine if you don't want to. You can call me whatever you're comfortable with" he continued.
I realized that he was trying even if it seemed awkward. All my life, I dreamt of the day when my father would come back. I had dreamed of the day when I could show mine to anyone else. I had dreamt of proudly presenting my Dad to others.
"I'll call you dad," saying it felt so weird but at the same time felt so right.
I went back to my original question "What did you want to talk about Father," I added at the end.
"Honestly, a lot of things but before everything I wanted to tell you something important Percy" I began to pay attention.
He looked me in the eyes and said "I want you to know that I'm sorry for not being there. I want you to know that I've always loved you." I could feel tears come forth unwillingly. "I want you to know that no matter what you do, I'll always be proud of you. I swear it to you right now, before the heavens and the earth, and on the Styx'" The noise of thunder made itself known even though it was a dream " that I'll always be proud of you". He finished.
I tried to stop crying. I wasn't normally such a crybaby." how could you think that? I'm not smart or strong enough or anything. I am just a dumb kid trying to do better and failing at it. I wasn't strong enough to save Mom". I whispered softly.
My dad did something unexpected. He hugged me. A part of me wondered if all of this wasn't just me dreaming. I feared that I would wake up and realize that none of that was real.
"You are more than everything I wish you could be Percy. You're neither weak nor dumb. Somebody who's dumb wouldn't have been able to trick the Minautor into breaking his own horn and killing him with it. A weak kid wouldn't have been able to beat more than two children of the war god by himself". He whispered while continuing to hold me in his arms.
"Even if you weren't strong enough, I would be there, strong for the both of us. I'm sorry I made you cry" he continued while hugging me.
I forced myself to stop crying. I didn't want my dad to be upset because of my tears.
"Then, why weren't you there if I am everything you wished I could be?" I asked while looking into his eyes still in his arms. I wanted to know how could all of those things have happened if he cared. I wanted to know why he let Mom and me suffer with Gabe. I wanted to know why he never helped Mom and me.
"I never wanted you to go through any of this Percy. I never wanted you to think that I didn't care and didn't love you." he began. " The thing is that I tried to make sure all of this never happened. I wanted to raise you. I wanted to see your first steps, hear you say your first words and drown you with affection and all the best the world could offer" he said seeming lost in past memories.
"When I learned that your mother was pregnant, I was ecstatic. I asked her to come live with me under the sea where I would have built you both castles, wonders that she and you deserved. I would have made both of you gods. I would have given you the world. It is forbidden for members of the Big Three to have demigod children. We swore an oath." he said in disgust like a child being forced to eat its vegetables.
"But" he added, "if I made you immortal, I wouldn't have technically broken my oath and what could be a greater gift to another than immortality".
I thought about being immortal, living inside a castle instead of an apartment shared with smelly Gabe. I thought about never having to worry about money for Mom and me. I thought about being a god and never having to worry about dying be it natural or by the hand of a monster. It sounded like a dream.
So "Why didn't you do it, Dad?" I blurted out.
He sighed and answered, "I didn't do it because of your mother." 'why would Mom say no?' I thought.
My thought must have been written all over my face because my dad answered what I was thinking. "She said that she refused to depend on someone else. She didn't want somebody else to solve her problems. She didn't want to depend on anyone," he said bitterly as if repeating a past conversation.
"I couldn't live with the both of you on the surface without risking the safety of you both. It would have been known by the other gods whether I wanted it or not. It just would have been a question of time. You already experienced what it was to be suspected to be a child of mine" he told me while looking in the direction of the ocean.
I knew what he was talking about. I had been attacked by a fury, by the Minotaur and blasted in a car by a lightning bolt.
"It would have been worse than everything you already experienced. Hades would have opened the gates of his realm and sent after your mother and you the most abominable and foul monsters. Zeus if not trying to erase you two personally would have sent other Gods or demigods to exact his will" he chuckled darkly.
"I knew what I had to do even if I didn't want to. Being a parent means being willing to do anything for your child, even if those things hurt us so I did what I had to do for your safety. I left and almost nothing has ever hurt me that much".
I felt sorry and angry for my dad. I felt angry at Zeus, at Hades and at all the other gods. They were the reason behind everything wrong in my life. Their cruelty was as big as their apathy. I wanted to make them pay.
I turned my face towards the blue ocean created by my dad. I finally had the answer to all the questions I've always wanted to be answered. It felt liberating as if a weight that had been always there on my shoulders had finally disappeared.
We Both stayed in a comfortable silence watching the waves in the distance take and lose form. I was still in the arms of my father and I should have probably not been acting like such a baby but it felt so comfortable.
He turned back to me "I am so sorry Percy. Even with everything I tried, I wasn't able to give you a good and comfortable life." I wanted to protest, to tell him that he had tried, that he was at least now there but nothing came out.
"Even now, I can feel the webs of fate encroaching on you. I can in observing the eddies of fate glimpse loss, suffering, and death coming towards you". He sounded as if he was stopping himself from crying.
"My brother thinks that I have orchestrated the disappearance of his Bolt. Gods can't steal directly the symbols of power of another god without respecting some conditions, conditions that didn't abide by which meant that I hadn't stolen it myself."
He said that Gods couldn't steal directly from other gods which meant that "Zeus thinks that you stole it indirectly".
He smiled and ruffled my hair" Smart boy". It made me feel happy and proud.
"The indirect way for a god to steal from another would be to use a mortal agent and with you being discovered living in New York where Olympus is also situated, my brother thinks that I used you to steal his lightning bolt".
"That is completely crazy!" I screamed. " I didn't even know about gods and monsters before being attacked by a Fury". All of this made me mad. I was blamed again for something I hadn't done and Mom paid the price for it.
"Zeus doesn't care," my dad said as angry as I felt. As if To prove this, not far from us, the ocean that was once calm was now churning, moving like a horrible beast trying to destroy everything around it. The sand of the beach was covered by it now and it was continuing to swallow all of the beach. The only spot untouched was the one where my dad and I were sitting.
"He accused me of stealing it. He thinks that I am secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple him from his throne. He threatened war if his Master bolt wasn't given back before the Summer Solstice" my dad continued.
"He doesn't want to hear reason and he hurt your mother and you. I won't let myself be walked on by my youngest brother. Many think he's our King because of his strength when in reality, he's such only by luck and deception. It is time to make him remember that" my dad said with anticipation as if something he was waiting forever to do was finally possible.
"Our sisters talked to him. He agreed to allow you to prove your innocence by giving him back his bolt," my father said with disgust as if he had before him something smelling bad.
"But I did nothing". How was I supposed to give him his stupid bolt when I didn't know where it was?
" For the lord of the sky, everyone is deemed guilty until proven otherwise and he's the god of justice. What a joke." I couldn't agree more with my dad.
"There are two possibilities Percy" he said while turning his head to look me into my eyes." you can try to do the dangerous quest that will be given to you to find my brother's symbol of power or when you wake up, you could come undersea to Atlantis with me where you would be safe. Know that whatever you choose, I'll still be proud and will still support you, " he finished with a smile.
I could go to Atlantis. It would make everything so easy. I wouldn't have to worry about monsters coming after me and with my father with me protecting me in his own domain, I would be nearly untouchable.
I could do this, take the easy option but it's not something I think I would be able to live with. Mom had taught me that doing the right thing meant sometimes doing the hard thing.
Going under the sea wouldn't change the fact that I would still be seen as the lightning thief. I would be the reason why my dad goes to war and even though he was confident, I can't say with certainty that he'd win. He was risking everything because of me.
"I won't go to Atlantis with you Dad," I told him with conviction. My mind was now made up." I'll prove my innocence, I'll find his stupid bolt to stop the war.
"You don't have to Percy," he said sounding sad. I didn't want to make my dad sad but I couldn't back down.
"I know that Dad but I am sure of my decision" I answered him.
The scenery was beginning to be completely submerged in the ocean that was now at the level of my navel. It was little by little growing but I didn't fear. I knew now that my dad would do everything to make sure I wasn't harmed.
"You are really a strong boy," he said before kissing the crown of my head. "You'll soon wake up in the real world." The Ocean was now at the level of my chin. "Remember Percy that the ocean is everywhere. You just have to call to it to make it answer and it will answer wherever you are. If any moment, you want to stop, call me and I'll come. I have many regrets and have made many errors in my life, but you will never be one of them".
He pulled back to look me in the eyes. The water was over my mouth and creeping toward my nose yet I wasn't scared.
"I love you, Percy," he told me before the ocean swallowed me whole and I woke up.
"I love you, Dad," I said back in my dark cabin.
My body told me it was morning, but it was dark outside, and thunder rolled across the hills. A storm was brewing. I hadn't dreamed that. I knew without a doubt that everything that happened wasn't the result of a sleepy mind. I truly met my dad.
"Dad" I called in the empty cabin. A sensation of being watched rolled over me. It felt as if I was in the centre of the Ocean and as if nothing could touch me. It stayed for a second and rescinded into the nothingness it had come from. That was the proof that I hadn't made things up.
I heard a clopping sound at the door, a hoof knocking on the threshold. "Can I Come in?"
It was Grover. He trotted inside, looking worried.
"Mr. D wants to see you."
"Why?"
"He wants to kill… I mean, I'd better let him tell
you."
I should have felt nervous but I didn't. I remembered my father's words. I knew that my dad had my back and that he would do anything to make me safe. I got dressed and followed, sure that I was in huge trouble and it was probably concerning the theft of the lightning bolt of Zeus.
For days, I'd been half expecting a summons to the Big House but now after the dream and the conversation I had with my dad, I knew when I woke up that it was a question of time, of when and not maybe or if.
Now that I was declared a son of
Poseidon, one of the Big Three gods who weren't supposed to have kids and was suspected as the lightning thief, I figured that it was a crime in the eyes of the gods except for my dad for me to be alive.
The other gods had probably been debating the best way to punish me for existing, and now Mr D was ready to deliver their verdict. My dad told me that they wanted to give me a quest but in case it wasn't that and actually wanted to harm me, I would call for my dad. It felt not gonna lie good to have somebody you could always be counted on other than your mom.
Over Long Island Sound, the sky looked like ink soup coming to a boil. A hazy curtain of rain was coming in our direction. I asked Grover if we needed an umbrella.
"No," he said. "It never rains here unless we want it to."
I pointed at the storm. "What the heck is that, then?"
He glanced uneasily at the sky. "It'll pass around us. Bad weather always does."
I realized he was right. In the week I had been here, it had never even been overcast. The few rainclouds I'd seen had skirted right around the edges of the valley.
But this storm… this one was huge.
At the volleyball pit, the kids from Apollo's cabin were playing a morning game against the satyrs. Dionysus's twins were walking around in the strawberry fields, making the plants grow. Everybody was going about their normal business, but they looked tense. They kept their eyes on the storm.
Grover and I walked up to the front porch of the Big House. Dionysus sat at the pinochle table in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt with his Diet Coke, just as he had on my first day. Chiron sat across the table in his fake wheelchair. They were playing against invisible opponents-two sets of cards hovering in the air. What had my life become that I didn't bat an eye to that.
"Well, well," Mr. D said without looking up. "Our little celebrity." I waited.
"Come closer," Mr. D said. "And don't expect me to kowtow to you, mortal, just because old Barnacle-Beard is your father." I don't think my dad would like to be called like this I wanted to say but I restrained myself. I didn't need more problems added to the list of the already existing ones.
A net of lightning flashed across the clouds. Thunder shook the windows of the house.
"Blah, blah, blah," Dionysus said.
Chiron feigned interest in his pinochle cards. Grover cowered by the railing, his hooves clopping back and forth.
"If I had my way," Dionysus said, "I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble. But Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm." 'Thank you Mister Brunner' I thought. He was my favourite teacher for a reason.
"A spontaneous combustion is a form of harm, Mr D," Chiron put in.
"Nonsense," Dionysus said. "Boy wouldn't feel a thing." 'I would feel a thing' I thought. "Nevertheless, I've agreed to restrain myself I'm thinking of turning you into a dolphin instead, sending you back to your father."
"Mr. D-" Chiron warned.
"Oh, all right," Dionysus relented. "There's one more option. But it's deadly foolishness." I think I knew what he was alluding to. Dionysus rose, and the invisible players' cards dropped to the table. "I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If the boy is still here when I get back, I'll turn him into an Atlantic bottlenose. Do you understand? And Perseus Jackson, if you're at all smart, you'll see that's a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you must do."
Dionysus picked up a playing card, twisted it, and it became a plastic rectangle. A credit card? No. A security pass. He snapped his fingers. The air seemed to fold and bend around him. He became a hologram, then a wind, then he was gone, leaving only the smell of fresh-pressed grapes lingering behind. I had to admit that it was cool. I still didn't like him though.
Chiron smiled at me, but he looked tired and strained. "Sit, Percy, please. And Grover." We did. Chiron laid his cards on the table, a winning hand he hadn't gotten to use.
"Tell me, Percy," he said. "What did you make of the hellhound?"
Just hearing the name made me shudder.
Chiron probably wanted me to say, Hey, it was nothing. I eat hellhounds for breakfast. But I didn't feel like lying.
"It scared me," I said. "If you hadn't shot it, I'd be dead."
"You'll meet worse, Percy. Far worse, before you're done." Yeah, that didn't sound ominous at all.
"Done… with what?"
"Your quest, of course. Will you accept it?" and finally, the core of the matter appears.
I glanced at Grover, who was crossing his fingers. I played dumb. I wasn't supposed to know anything.
"Um, sir," I said, "you haven't told me what it is yet."
Chiron grimaced. "Well, that's the hard part, the details."
Thunder rumbled across the valley. The storm clouds had now reached the edge of the beach. As far as I could see, the sky and the sea were boiling together.
"Poseidon and Zeus, They're fighting over something valuable… something that was stolen, aren't they?" I said trying to make my words seem uncertain.
Chiron and Grover exchanged looks.
Chiron sat forward in his wheelchair. "How did you know that?"
Here came Percy, the best lying kid in New York. I drew to make everything convincing of the times when I had eaten more cookies than I was allowed to by mom and yet was able to make it seem it was the fault of a rat.
Yeah… mom saw right through it but it was almost perfect. It was just because Mom was very perceptive about stuff and not for any other reason. They were delicious though.
"The weather since Christmas has been weird like the sea and the sky are fighting". I began "Then I talked to Annabeth, and she'd overheard something about a theft. And… I've also been having these dreams."
"I knew it," Grover said. Yeah, It worked. I wasn't joking when I said I was the best.
"Hush, satyr," Chiron ordered.
"But it is his quest!" Grover's eyes were bright with excitement. "It must be!"
"Only the Oracle can determine." Chiron stroked his bristly beard. "Nevertheless, Percy, you are correct. Your father and Zeus are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen. To be precise: a lightning bolt."
I laughed nervously. "A what?". I had to play the fool.
"Do not take this lightly," Chiron warned. "I'm not talking about some tinfoil-covered zigzag you'd see in a second-grade play. I'm talking about a two-foot-long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives."
"Oh," I said.
"Zeus's Master bolt," Chiron continued, getting worked up now. "The symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers."
"And it's missing?" They should hire better security in Olympus and stop blaming others for their pitfalls.
"Stolen," Chiron said.
"By who?"
"By whom," Chiron corrected. Once a teacher, always a teacher. "By you." I let my mouth fall open.
"At least"-Chiron held up a hand-"that's what Zeus thinks. During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon had an argument. The usual nonsense: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best,' Air disasters are more spectacular than sea disasters,' et cetera". That sounded childish and not at all how my dad sounded. It was probably mostly Zeus.
"Afterward, Zeus realized his Master Bolt was missing, taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon. Now, a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power directly-that is forbidden by the most ancient of divine laws. But Zeus believes your father convinced a human hero to take it."
"But I didn't-"
"Patience and listen, child," Chiron said. "Zeus has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean, which gives Poseidon some influence over the makers of his brother's lightning". I didn't know this.
"Zeus believes Poseidon has taken the master bolt, and is now secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple Zeus from his throne".
My dad wouldn't lie to me, right? I thought about the love my dad showed towards me and crushed the doubt beginning to take form in my mind.
"The only thing Zeus wasn't sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Poseidon has openly claimed you as his son. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You could easily have snuck into Olympus. Zeus believes he has found his thief."
"But I've never even been to Olympus! Zeus is crazy!" I wasn't trying to be more convincing or anything. I was this time saying something that I truly thought was true.
Chiron and Grover glanced nervously at the sky. The clouds didn't seem to be parting around us, as Grover had promised. They were rolling straight over our valley, sealing us in like a coffin lid.
"Er, Percy…?" Grover said. "We don't use the c-word to describe the Lord of the Sky."
"Perhaps paranoid," Chiron suggested. "Then again, Poseidon has tried to unseat Zeus before. I believe that was question thirty-eight on your final exam…" He looked at me as if he actually expected me to remember question thirty-eight.
How could anyone accuse me of stealing a god's weapon? I couldn't even steal a slice of pizza from Gabe's poker party without getting busted. Chiron was waiting for an answer.
"Something about a golden net?" I guessed.
"Poseidon and Hera and a few other gods… they, like, trapped Zeus and wouldn't let him out until he promised to be a better ruler, right?" If Zeus had always been this way, I can understand how other gods and my dad would have had enough and tried to depose him.
"Correct," Chiron said. "And Zeus has never trusted Poseidon since. Of course, Poseidon denies stealing the master bolt. He took great offence at the accusation. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threatening war. And now, you've come along-the proverbial last straw."
"But I'm just a kid!"
"Percy," Grover cut in, "if you were Zeus, and you already thought your brother was plotting to overthrow you, then your brother suddenly admitted he had broken the sacred oath he took after World War II, that he's fathered a new mortal hero who might be used as a weapon against you… Wouldn't that put a twist in your toga?"
"But I didn't do anything. Poseidon-my dad-he didn't really have this master bolt stolen, did he?" Zeus wouldn't have to worry about rebellion if he hadn't the habit of throwing lightning bolts at people that haven't been proven guilty I reasoned internally. Maybe Zeus should be cast down from his throne forever.
Chiron sighed. "Most thinking observers would agree that thievery is not Poseidon's style. But the Sea God is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that. Zeus demanded that Poseidon return the bolt by the summer solstice. That's June twenty-first, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief on the same date.
I hoped that diplomacy might prevail, that Hera or Demeter or Hestia would make the two brothers see sense. But your arrival has inflamed Zeus's temper". Yeah, another thing I did wrong just by existing I thought.
Chiron continued "Now neither god will back down. Unless someone intervenes, unless the master bolt is found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, there will be war. And do you know what a full-fledged war would look like, Percy?"
"Bad?" I guessed.
"Imagine the world in chaos. Nature at war with itself. Olympians forced to choose sides between Zeus and Poseidon. Destruction. Carnage. Millions dead. Western civilization turned into a battleground so big it will make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight."
"Bad," I repeated. It really sounded bad. Even though I would have loved nothing more than being with my dad, I wanted to prove for once to the world, to everyone that I wasn't what they thought I was. I was sick and tired of always being blamed when things go wrong.
"And you, Percy Jackson, would be the first to feel Zeus's wrath."It started to rain. Volleyball players stopped their game and stared in stunned silence at the sky.
I had brought this storm to Half-Blood Hill. Zeus was punishing the whole camp because of me. I was furious and couldn't hide it anymore.
"So I have to find the stupid bolt," I said. "And return it to Zeus."
"What better peace offering," Chiron said, "than to have the son of Poseidon return Zeus's property?"
"If my dad doesn't have it, where is the thing?"
"I believe I know." Chiron's expression was grim. "Part of a prophecy I had years ago… well, some of the lines make sense to me, now. But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You must seek the counsel of the Oracle." I was always told by my mom to always know what something entails before I agree. It sounded sketchy.
"Why can't you tell me where the bolt is beforehand?" I asked. Wouldn't that be easier?
"Because if I did, you would be too afraid to accept the challenge."
I swallowed. "Good reason." If the goal was to make me agree, he was going in a very weird way.
"You agree then?" I looked at Grover, who nodded encouragingly. Easy for him. I was the one Zeus wanted to kill.
"All right," I said. "It's better than being turned into a dolphin." "Then it's time for you to consult the Oracle," Chiron said. "Go upstairs, Percy Jackson, to the attic."
"When you come back down, assuming you're still sane, we will talk more." Four flights up, the stairs ended under a green trapdoor that was not ominous at all. Yeah, that was sarcastic if you could not tell.
I pulled the cord. The door swung down, and a wooden ladder clattered into place.
The warm air from above smelled like mildew and rotten wood and something else… a smell I remembered from biology class. Reptiles. The smell of snakes.
I held my breath and climbed. The attic was filled with Greek hero junk: armour stands covered in cobwebs; once-bright shields pitted with rust; old leather steamer trunks plastered with stickers saying ITHAKA, CIRCE'S ISLE, and LAND OF THE AMAZONS.
One long table was stacked with glass jars filled with pickled things-severed hairy claws, huge yellow eyes, and various other parts of monsters. A dusty mounted trophy on the wall looked like a giant snake's head but with horns and a full set of shark's teeth. The plaque read, HYDRA HEAD 1, WOODSTOCK, N.Y., 1969.
By the window, sitting on a wooden tripod stool, was the most gruesome memento of all: a mummy. Not the wrapped-in-cloth kind, but a human female body shrivelled to a husk. She wore a tie-dyed sundress, lots of beaded necklaces, and a headband over long black hair. The skin of her face was thin and leathery over her skull, and her eyes were glassy white slits as if the real eyes had been replaced by marbles; she'd been dead a long, long time. How was I supposed to receive a prophecy if the Oracle was a corpse?
Looking at her sent chills up my back. And that was before she sat up on her stool and opened her mouth like a demon from the evil dead. A green mist poured from the mummy's mouth, coiling over the floor in thick tendrils, hissing like twenty thousand snakes. I stumbled over myself trying to get to the trapdoor, but it slammed shut.
Inside my head, I heard a voice, slithering into one ear and coiling around my brain: I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask.
I wanted to say, No thanks, wrong door, just looking for the bathroom. But I forced myself to take a deep breath.
I didn't know how I knew but The mummy wasn't alive. She was some kind of gruesome receptacle for something else, for the power that was now swirling around me in the green mist. But its presence didn't feel evil, like my demonic math teacher Mrs Dodds or the Minotaur. It felt more like the Three old ladies I'd seen knitting the yarn outside the highway fruit stand: ancient, powerful, and definitely not human. But not particularly interested in killing me, either.
I got up the courage to ask, "What is my destiny?"
The mist swirled more thickly, collecting right in front of me and around the table with the pickled monster-part jars. Suddenly there were four men sitting around the table, playing cards. Their faces became clearer. It was Smelly Gabe and his buddies.
My fists clenched, though I knew this poker party couldn't be real. It was an illusion, made out of most I repeated to myself. It wasn't real. Gabe turned toward me and spoke in the rasping voice of the Oracle: " You shall go west, and face the god who has turned."
His buddy on the right looked up and said in the same voice: " You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned."
The guy on the left threw in two poker chips, then said: " You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend."
Finally, Eddie, our building super, delivered the worst line of all: " And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end."
The figures began to dissolve. At first, I was too stunned to say anything, but as the mist retreated, coiling into a huge green serpent and slithering back into the mouth of the mummy, I yelled, "Wait! What do you mean? What friend? What will I fail to save?" I didn't think that I had other friends except for Grover. Does it mean that he would betray me? Would it be someone else?
The tail of the mist snake disappeared into the mummy's mouth. She reclined back against the wall. Her mouth closed tight as if it hadn't been open in a hundred years. The attic was silent again, abandoned, nothing but a room full of mementoes.
I got the feeling that I could stand here until I had cobwebs too and I wouldn't learn anything else. My audience with the Oracle was over.
"Well?" Chiron asked me when I got out of the attic. I slumped into a chair at the pinochle table. "She said I would retrieve what was stolen."
Grover sat forward, chewing excitedly on the remains of a Diet Coke can. "That's great!"
"What did the Oracle say exactly?" Chiron pressed. "This is important."
My ears were still tingling from the reptilian voice. "She . .. she said I would go west and face a god who had turned. I would retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned."
"I knew it," Grover said.
Chiron didn't look satisfied. "Anything else?"
I didn't want to tell him. What friend would betray me? I didn't have that many. And the last line-I would fail to save what mattered most. What kind of Oracle would send me on a quest and tell me, Oh, by the way, you'll fail. How could I confess that? Worse, how I could live with myself knowing that I will disappoint my dad?
"No," I said. "That's about it."
He studied my face. "Very well, Percy. But know this: the Oracle's words often have double meanings. Don't dwell on them too much. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass."
I got the feeling he knew I was holding back something bad, and he was trying to make me feel better.
"Okay," I said, anxious to change topics. "So where do I go? Who's this god in the West?"
"Ah, think, Percy," Chiron said. "If Zeus and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain?"
"Somebody else who wants to take over?" I guessed.
"Yes, quite. Someone who harbours a grudge, who has been unhappy with his lot since the world was divided aeons ago, whose kingdom would grow powerful with the deaths of millions. Someone who hates his brothers for forcing him into an oath to have no more children, an oath that both of them have now broken."
I thought about my dreams, the evil voice that had spoken from under the ground. "Hades."
Chiron nodded. "The Lord of The dead is the only possibility."
A scrap of aluminium dribbled out of Grover's mouth. "Whoa, wait. Wh-what?"
"A Fury came after Percy," Chiron reminded him. "She watched the young man until she was sure of his identity, then tried to kill him. Furies obey only one lord: Hades."
"Yes, but-but Hades hates all heroes," Grover protested. "Especially if he has found out Percy is a son of Poseidon… ."
"A hellhound got into the forest," Chiron continued. "Those can only be summoned from the Fields of Punishment, and it had to be summoned by someone within the camp. Hades must have a spy here. He must suspect Poseidon will try to use Percy to clear his name. Hades would very much like to kill this young half-blood before he can take on the quest."
"Great," I muttered. "As if it could not have been worse."
"But a quest to…" Grover swallowed. "I mean, couldn't the master bolt be in some place like Maine? Maine's very nice this time of year."
"Hades sent a minion to steal the master bolt," Chiron insisted. "He hid it in the Underworld, knowing full well that Zeus would blame Poseidon. I don't pretend to understand the Lord of the Dead's motives perfectly, or why he chose this time to start a war, but one thing is certain. Percy must go to the Underworld, find the master bolt, and reveal the truth."
A strange fire burned in my stomach. The weirdest thing was: it wasn't fear. It was anticipation. The desire for revenge. Hades had tried to kill me three times so far, with the Fury, the Minotaur, and the hellhound. It was his fault my mother had disappeared in a flash of light. It was his fault my mother had died. Now he was trying to frame me and my dad for a theft we hadn't committed.
I was ready to take him on. Besides, if my mother was in the Underworld…
Whoa, boy, said the small part of my brain that was still sane. You're a kid. Hades is a god but you also have another god on your side a voice in my mind whispered.
Grover was trembling. He'd started eating pinochle cards like potato chips. The poor guy needed to complete a quest with me so he could get his searcher's license, whatever that was, but how could I ask him to do this quest, especially when the Oracle said I was destined to fail to save what matters the most to me? This was just suicide.
"Look, if we know it's Hades," I told Chiron, "why can't we just tell the other gods? Zeus or Poseidon could go down to the Underworld and bust some heads."
"Suspecting and knowing are not the same," Chiron replied. "Besides, even if the other gods suspect Hades-and I imagine Poseidon does, they couldn't retrieve the bolt themselves. Gods cannot cross each other's territories except by invitation. That is another ancient rule". I didn't know this. I was back to square one. If I wanted to face Hades, I would have to find a way to outsmart him to face him out of his domain where I could count on the help of my dad.
"Heroes," continued Chiron "on the other hand, have certain privileges. They can go anywhere, and challenge anyone, as long as they're bold enough and strong enough to do it. No god can be held responsible for a hero's actions. Why do you think the gods always operate through humans?"
"You're saying I'm being used."
"I'm saying it's no accident Poseidon has claimed you now. It's a very risky gamble, but he's in a desperate situation. He needs you."
My dad needs me. Maybe before, I would have felt resentful but I was given a choice. My dad needed my help yet gave me the choice to go on the quest or go hide in Atlantis. I only felt at that moment anticipation and anxiety. I wanted to succeed, find the master bolt and like some demigods in the past bring Mom from the underworld but on the other side, I was scared of failing. My failure meant war and devastation. I wasn't the only one at risk here.
I looked at Chiron. "You've known I was Poseidon's son all along, haven't you?"
"I had my suspicions. As I said… I've spoken to the Oracle, too."
I got the feeling there was a lot he wasn't telling me about his prophecy, but I decided I couldn't worry about that right now. After all, I was holding back information too.
"So let me get this straight," I said. "I'm supposed to go to the Underworld and confront the Lord of the Dead."
"Check," Chiron said.
"Find the most powerful weapon in the universe."
"Check."
"And get it back to Olympus before the summer solstice, in ten days."
"That's about right."
I looked at Grover, who gulped down the ace of hearts. "Did I mention that Maine is very nice this time of year?" he asked weakly.
"You don't have to go," I told him. "I can't ask that of you.
"Oh…" He shifted his hooves. "No… it's just that satyrs and underground places… well…" He took a deep breath, then stood, brushing the shredded cards and aluminium bits off his T-shirt.
"You saved my life, Percy. If… if you're serious about wanting me along, I won't let you down."
I felt so relieved I wanted to cry, though I didn't think that would be very heroic. Grover was the only friend I'd ever had for longer than a few months. I wasn't sure what good a satyr could do against the forces of the dead, but I felt better knowing he'd be with me.
"All the way, G-man." I turned to Chiron. "So where do we go? The Oracle just said to go west."
"The entrance to the Underworld is always in the west. It moves from age to age, just like Olympus. Right now, of course, it's in America." said Chiron.
"Where?" I asked.
Chiron looked surprised. "I thought that would be obvious enough. The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles."
"Oh," I said. "Naturally. So we just get on a plane-"
"No!" Grover shrieked. "Percy, what are you thinking? Have you ever been on a plane in your life?"
I shook my head, feeling embarrassed. My mom had never taken me anywhere by plane. She'd always said we didn't have the money. Besides, her parents had died in a plane crash.
"Percy, think," Chiron said. "You are the son of the Sea God. Your father's bitterest rival is Zeus, Lord of the Sky. Your mother knew better than to trust you in an airplane. You would be in Zeus's domain. You would never come down again alive."
Overhead, lightning crackled. Thunder boomed as if to confirm Chiron's words.
"Okay," I said, determined not to look at the storm. "So, I'll travel overland."
"That's right," Chiron said. "Two companions may accompany you. Grover is one. The other has already volunteered, if you will accept her help."
"Gee," I said, feigning surprise. "Who else would be stupid enough to volunteer for a quest like this?
The air shimmered behind Chiron.
Annabeth became visible, stuffing her Yankees cap into her back pocket. I guess we found the idiot I thought.
"I've been waiting a long time for a quest, seaweed brain," she said. "Athena is no fan of
Poseidon, but if you're going to save the world, I'm the best person to keep you from messing up."
"If you do say so yourself," I said. "I suppose you have a plan, wise girl?"
Her cheeks coloured. "Do you want my help or not?"
The truth was, I did. I needed all the help I could get even if I didn't forget the fact she set me up with the Ares cabin.
"A trio," I said. "That'll work."
"Excellent," Chiron said. "This afternoon, we can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. After that, you are on your own." Lightning flashed. Rain poured down on the meadows that were never supposed to have violent weather.
"No time to waste," Chiron said. "I think you should all get packing."
scene*
When I went back to my cabin, I found on my bed a collar of white pearls with a written note on the side spelling for protection. It felt like my dad and like the waves of the beach of Montauk. I wore it. It didn't take me long to pack. I decided to leave the Minotaur horn in my cabin, which left me only an extra change of clothes and a toothbrush to stuff in a backpack Grover had found for me.
The camp store loaned me one hundred dollars in mortal money and twenty golden drachmas. These coins were as big as Girl Scout cookies and had images of various Greek gods stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other.
The ancient mortal drachmas had been silver, Chiron told us, but Olympians never used less than pure gold.
Chiron said the coins might come in handy for non-mortal transactions, whatever that meant. He gave Annabeth and me each a canteen of nectar and a ziploc bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in emergencies if we were seriously hurt.
It was divine food, Chiron reminded us. It would cure us of almost any injury, but it was lethal to mortals. Too much of it would make a half-blood very, very feverish. An overdose would burn us up, literally.
Annabeth was bringing her magic Yankees cap, which she told me had been a twelfth-birthday present from her mom. She carried a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored, and a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve. I was sure the knife would get us busted the first time we went through a metal detector.
Grover wore his fake feet and his pants to pass as human. He wore a green rasta-style cap, because when it rained his curly hair flattened and you could just see the tips of his horns. His bright orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on. In his pocket was a set of reed pipes his daddy goat had carved for him, even though he only knew two songs: Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 12 and Hilary Duff's "So Yesterday," both of which sounded pretty bad on reed pipes.
We waved goodbye to the other campers, took one last look at the strawberry fields, the ocean, and the Big House, and then hiked up Half-Blood Hill to the tall pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus.
Chiron was waiting for us in his wheelchair. Next to him stood the surfer dude I'd seen when I was recovering in the sick room.
According to Grover, the guy was the camp's head of security. He supposedly had eyes all over his body so he could never be surprised. Today, though, he was wearing a chauffeur's uniform, so I could only see extra peepers on his hands, face and neck.
"This is Argus," Chiron told me. "He will drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on things."
I heard footsteps behind us.
Luke came running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes.
"Hey!" he panted. "Glad I caught you."
Annabeth blushed, the way she always did when Luke was around.
"Just wanted to say good luck," Luke told me. "And I thought… um, maybe you could use these." He handed me the sneakers, which looked pretty normal. They even smelled kind of normal.
Luke shouted, "Maia!"
White bird's wings sprouted out of the heels, startling me so much, I dropped them. The shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared. "Awesome!" Grover said.
Luke smiled. "Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from Dad. Of course, I don't use them much these days…" His expression turned sad.
I didn't know what to say. It was cool enough that Luke had come to say goodbye. I'd been afraid he might resent me internally just like all the other campers, that he was just hiding his true feelings behind a mask. But here he was giving me a magic gift… It made me blush almost as much as Annabeth.
"Hey, man," I said. "Thanks."
"Listen, Percy…" Luke looked uncomfortable. "A lot of hope is riding on you. So just… kill some monsters for me, okay?"
We shook hands. Luke patted Grover's head between his horns, then gave a goodbye hug to Annabeth, who looked like she might pass out.
After Luke was gone, I told her, "You're hyperventilating."
"Am not."
"You let him capture the flag instead of you, didn't you?"
"Oh… why do I want to go anywhere with you, Percy?"
She stomped down the other side of the hill, where a white SUV waited on the shoulder of the road. Argus followed, jingling his car keys. I picked up the flying shoes and had a sudden bad feeling, the kind you get when passing close to a shadowy alley at night.
I looked at Chiron. "I won't be able to use these, will I?"
He shook his head. "Luke meant well, Percy. But taking to the air… that would not be wise for you."
I nodded, disappointed, but then I got an idea. "Hey, Grover. You want a magic item?"
His eyes lit up. "Me?"
Pretty soon we'd laced the sneakers over his fake feet, and the world's first flying goat boy was ready for launch. First step for Grover and maybe in the future, satyrs will be the ones dominating the sky.
"Maia!" he shouted.
He got off the ground okay but then fell over sideways so his backpack dragged through the grass.
The winged shoes kept bucking up and down like tiny broncos.
"Practice," Chiron called after him. "You just need practice!"
"Aaaaa!" Grover went flying sideways down the hill like a possessed lawn mower, heading
toward the van. In a very long future, I thought the satyrs would rule the sky.
Before I could follow, Chiron caught my arm. "I should have trained you better, Percy," he said.
"If only I had more time. Hercules, Jason-they all got more training."
"That's okay. You tried something that most of my ex-teachers didn't do when it came to me" I told him.
"What am I thinking?" Chiron cried. "I can't let you get away without this."
He pulled a pen from his coat pocket and handed it to me. It was an ordinary disposable ballpoint, black ink, and a removable cap. Probably cost thirty cents.
"Gee," I said. "Thanks." trying to sound not disappointed.
"Percy, that's a gift from your father. I've kept it for years, not knowing you were who I was waiting for. But the prophecy is clear to me now. You are the one."
I remembered the field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art when I'd vaporized Mrs Dodds. Chiron had thrown me a pen that turned into a sword. Could this be…?
I took off the cap, and the pen grew longer and heavier in my hand. In half a second, I held a shimmering bronze sword with a double-edged blade, a leather-wrapped grip, and a flat hilt riveted with gold studs. It was the first weapon that actually felt balanced in my hand.
"The sword has a long and tragic history that we need not go into," Chiron told me. "Its name is Anaklusmos."
"'Riptide,'" I translated, surprised the Ancient Greek came so easily.
"Use it only for emergencies," Chiron said, "and only against monsters. No hero should harm mortals unless absolutely necessary, of course, but this sword wouldn't harm them in any case."
I looked at the wickedly sharp blade. "What do you mean it wouldn't harm mortals? How could it not?"
"The sword is celestial bronze. Forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, cooled in the River Lethe. It's deadly to monsters, to any creature from the Underworld, provided they don't kill you first. But the blade will pass through mortals like an illusion. They simply are not important enough for the blade to kill. And I should warn you: as a demigod, you can be killed by either celestial or normal weapons. You are twice as vulnerable."
"Good to know."
"Now recap the pen," he told me.
I touched the pen cap to the sword tip and instantly Riptide shrank to a ballpoint pen again. I tucked it in my pocket, a little nervous, because I was famous for losing pens at school.
"You can't," Chiron said.
"Can't what?"
"Lose the pen," he said as if he had read my mind. "It is enchanted. It will always reappear in your pocket. Try it."
I was wary, but I threw the pen as far as I could down the hill and watched it disappear into the grass.
"It may take a few moments," Chiron told me.
"Now check your pocket."
Sure enough, the pen was there.
"Okay, that's extremely cool," I admitted. "But what if a mortal sees me pulling out a sword?"
Chiron smiled. "Mist is a powerful thing, Percy."
"Mist?"
"Yes. Read The Iliad. It's full of references to the stuff. Whenever divine or monstrous elements mix with the mortal world, they generate Mist, which obscures the vision of humans. You will see things just as they are, being a half-blood, but humans will interpret things quite differently. Remarkable, really, the lengths to which humans will go to fit things into their version of reality."
Does that mean that everything I thought I was hallucinating had always been real but I was the only one seeing through it like with Miss Ker? It would have been so much better if I knew about all of this before thinking I was going crazy. It made me wonder how many demigods had been sent to mental hospitals or given meds because of something that was real but only they could see.
I put Riptide back in my pocket. For the first time, the quest felt real. I was actually leaving Half-Blood Hill. I was heading west with no adult supervision, not even a cell phone. (Chiron said cell phones were traceable by monsters; if we used one, it would be worse than sending up a flare. I wondered how monsters became tech-savvy. I imagined the minotaur taking an informatics class. ) I had no weapon stronger than a sword to fight off monsters and reach the Land of the Dead.
"Chiron…" I said. "When you say the gods are immortal… I mean, there was a time before them, right?"
"Four ages before them, actually. The Time of the Titans was the Fourth Age, sometimes called the Golden Age, which is definitely a misnomer. This, the time of Western civilization and the rule of Zeus, is the Fifth Age."
"So what was it like… before the gods?" I asked.
Chiron pursed his lips. "Even I am not old enough to remember that, child, but I know it was a time of darkness and savagery for mortals. Kronos, the lord of the Titans, called his reign the Golden Age because men lived innocent and free of all knowledge. But that was mere propaganda. The Titan king cared nothing for your kind except as appetizers or a source of cheap entertainment. It was only in the early reign of Lord Zeus, when Prometheus the good Titan brought fire to mankind, that your species began to progress, and even then Prometheus was branded a radical thinker. Zeus punished him severely, as you may recall". Another reason to dislike Zeus.
"Of course," Chiron continued "eventually, the gods warmed to humans, and Western civilization was born."
"But the gods can't die now, right? I mean, as long as Western civilization is alive, they're alive. So… even if I failed, nothing could happen so bad it would mess up everything, right?" I asked.
Chiron gave me a melancholy smile. "No one knows how long the Age of the West will last, Percy. The gods are immortal, yes. But then, so were the Titans. They still exist, locked away in their various prisons, forced to endure endless pain and punishment, reduced in power, but still very much alive. May the Fates forbid that the gods should ever suffer such a doom, or that we should ever return to the darkness and chaos of the past. All we can do, child, is follow our destiny."
"Our destiny… assuming we know what that is."
"Relax," Chiron told me. "Keep a clear head. And remember, you may be about to prevent the biggest war in human history."
"Relax," I said. "I'm very relaxed."
When I got to the bottom of the hill, I looked back. Under the pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus, Chiron was now standing in full horse-man form, holding his bow high in salute. Just your typical summer camp send-off by your typical centaur.
scene*
Argus drove us out of the countryside and into western Long Island. It felt weird to be on a highway again, Annabeth and Grover sitting next to me as if we were normal carpoolers. After two weeks at Half-Blood Hill, the real world seemed like a fantasy. I found myself staring at every McDonald's, every kid in the back of his parent's car, every billboard and shopping mall.
"So far so good," I told Annabeth. "Ten miles and not a single monster."
She gave me an irritated look. "It's bad luck to talk that way, seaweed brain."
"Remind me again why do you hate me so much?"
"I don't hate you."
"Could've fooled me."
She folded her cap of invisibility. "Look… we're just not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals."
"Why?" I questioned.
She sighed. "How many reasons do you want? One time my mom caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena's temple, which is hugely disrespectful. Another time, Athena and Poseidon competed to be the patron god for the city of Athens. Your dad created some stupid saltwater spring for his gift. My mom created the olive tree. The people saw that her gift was better, so they named the city after her."
"They must really like olives, especially with the fact that they're the worst thing except pineapple on a pizza."
"Oh, forget it." She grumbled.
"Now, if she'd invented pizza that I could understand," I added.
"I said, forget it!"
In the front seat, Argus smiled. He didn't say anything, but one blue eye on the back of his neck winked at me.
Traffic slowed us down in Queens. By the time we got into Manhattan, it was sunset and starting to rain.
Argus dropped us at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, not far from my mom and Gabe's apartment. Taped to a mailbox was a soggy flyer with my picture on it: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOY?
I ripped it down before Annabeth and Grover could notice.
Argus unloaded our bags, made sure we got our bus tickets, and then drove away, the eye on the back of his hand opening to watch us as he pulled out of the parking lot.
I thought about how close I was to my old apartment. On a normal day, my mom would be home from the candy store by now. Smelly Gabe was probably up there right now, playing poker, not even missing her.
I grabbed my necklace. I knew what I had to do to make things better. I will find the stupid bolt, save Mom and everything will be alright. I stopped looking in the direction of the apartment where smelly Gabe probably was. I couldn't change my past but I could change my future.
I took a step forward followed by Grover and Annabeth in my back.
Chapter 2
She sat alone in her garden made of stones. Stones that were in the likeness of human beings with on the faces despair and anger drawn and sculpted forever.
There was no far from her the statue of a child that fell victim to her gaze, sadness and fear etched on her face showing despair confronted by a monster she could never defend herself against, never defeat.
A part of her ached. Maybe it was some long-forgotten maternal instinct or just mere empathy. It failed to take grip in her cold and withered heart and faded.
'None of those things were her fault' she thought. She was at her core a good and empathetic person. It was the reason why she was a priestess in the past. It was the reason why she had been chosen to be one. Thinking about it now She should not have been one. She should have found a way to refuse but she didn't and paid the price for it. She regretted it.
Her that was lusted after by gods and mortals alike, her that had hundreds fall on their sword in anguish after her refusing their advance. She had mortals singing to her beauty, she was said to be more beautiful than Aphrodite and Hera. She was worshipped for her beauty.
She chuckled. 'See How hard does the mighty fall' she thought. She was now nothing more than an abominable creature stripped from her divinity. She could not rouse storms that could swallow cities if she had wanted. She could not play with the waves like she did in the past. She was now a trophy to be acquired. She was now a target, a hunt prize and it sickened her.
Her beheaded head was even now seen as a symbol of Athena and was forever sculpted on the shield of the war goddess. Both mortals and immortals called it Gorgoneion.
She was a creature of divine descent. Her grandparents were the sea and the earth themselves and not mere placeholders like the current governing Gods.
None of those facts changed her fate. She wished she could take a pike and put the still-living beheaded head of Athena on it to see if she would like it.
Oh, how she wished she could make Athena pay. She wished she could make her beg. She wished she could shatter her pride. She wished to see how her cold grey eyes would change under torture. However, more than anything, She wished none of those things had happened. She wished her sisters, her brave sisters that took on her curse with her were still there. She wished her intrinsic divinity hadn't been removed from her.
She wished for many things that she knew she could never have. Lineage didn't always equal power. It sometimes did but it wasn't always the case. In this world, the only thing that mattered was power and she didn't have enough of it.
She didn't have people powerful enough that could care to protect her. She had begged her father but he had let her prayers be spirited into nothing. It's not that he could not do anything. The simple reason was just that he simply didn't care.
He had thousands of kids and she was never one of his favourites. If it had happened to Skolopondra or one of the Graeae, Athena wouldn't be seated on her bloodstained divine throne.
They called her a monster when the true horror was Athena. Athena was the one that turned her into this. Athena was the one who sent her bastard half-brother with divine weapons to slay her and have her body-less head used as a trophy and a weapon, all of that while she was pregnant. Athena was the true cause of the destruction mortals accused her to do.
Athena was a goddess of law, of justice yet she was sending thousands to butcher and slaughter at her whims without feeling regret in her darkness-filled heart. She was the true monster. It never was herself.
One of the statues fixed her with hate as if to spit on her at the notion of Medusa being innocent and a victim of her circumstances. She crushed it into dust with a swipe of her arm.
She could see those same regards of derision, of hate all around her and it angered her. The statues that were unmoving seemed now alive " How dare you all judge me" she screamed at them. She was now with the help of her two arms a tornado of destruction directed at the stone statues.
"None of you knows what is to bear such a curse" she yelled.
They broke, caved under the force of her blows and turned into dust. A haze had taken possession of her mind and she couldn't muster the will to stop.
" None of you know what it is to fall from the highest cloud to this miserable existence, from a divine queen to a monster. None f you knows what it's like to have everything and to lose it all".
The haze lifted and her sight was welcome with fragments of stones that were people, mostly innocent people that she had hurt and killed.
" I am truly a monster" she admitted to the nothing surrounding her. No justification could change that fact. She had in a fit of rage sent their souls to the domain of the rich one when they didn't deserve it, when they could have lived longer and more fulfilling lives. She fell on her knees on the hard white marble and ignored the sensation of the broken debris of stone prickly under her legs.
She remembered a better time, one when she mattered. She remembered a time when she was the pearl of his eyes and was gifted the most lavish gifts. She remembered his beautiful sea-green eyes and the promises that had been held in them, the sharpness of his chin, his honeyed words that had felt like an intoxicating beverage.
She had felt as if the world was theirs. She remembered proclaiming her love to him and him doing the same. She remembers him having said that he'll " always be there for her" and that he'll "always protect her".
She remembered becoming pregnant with their children. She thought their love was real and a big part of her still wanted to believe that but it was becoming century after century harder to believe so.
She was just a fancy that had caught his eyes that he used to avoid boredom until he had found another woman that could stoke the lust in his heart or a way to irritate Athena.
She thought he would have protected her. He could have. He was an elder god, one of the strongest of their pantheon. Athena wouldn't have dared to curse her if he had threatened her, had said that Medusa was under his protection. He could have but didn't. He could have also broken the curse. He just left and never talked to her again.
She lost what made and defined her. She lost her beauty. She lost her love and lost her connection to the sea that was now unwelcoming and cold towards her. She lost her sisters that chose to share her burden with her without her even asking and that exhausted from their terrible burden chose to fade.
She laughed while watching her reflection on the white marble floor of her garden. The face watching her back had tusks like a wild boar's jutting from the mouth, the lips were curled in a permanent sneer. The eyes were bulged, making the face look vaguely amphibian. What came out of her mouth was a mad and broken laugh.
She could feel liquids coming from her eyes and falling on the ground. The snakes on her head had awakened from their slumber and were now hissing angrily at the air searching for an invisible threat.
"You promised to be there beloved" she whispered to the nothing. " Why are you not there"
She didn't expect any answer. She had begged for one for thousands of years and not once did he come yet a very deeply buried part of her still hoped that he would answer.
"I am finally there. Sorry for making you cry" a voice answered to me. She knew that she had been alone, that the only things present in her garden were the broken statues and her.
"I must have finally gone mad to delude myself to the point of making you appear before me Poseidon. It's so pathetic". The shadow looming over her moved and fell before her.
A hand touched her left cheek caressing the coarse and rugged snake-like skin. "Medusa, look at me," his hypnotic voice told her. She did and fell into the depth of his ocean eyes. He was really there a part of whispered.
It had begun raining a distant part of her noted. The raindrops fell and with their fall created a discordant note blocking the noise of the world all around her.
At that moment, they were the only ones to exist and she wished it could never end. She leaned towards his touch which reminded her of a glorious and happiness-filled past where everything was much simpler and fair. He didn't back down in disgust. He let her do so.
She finally spoke," What are you doing here". It has been more than a millennium since they saw each other since he left her while she begged for him to stay".
"I'm here to correct an error, something I should have done for a long time," he answered with gravity.
There was only one thing that could be here called an error and it was her existence. She was the error he wanted to correct she realised. She knew that without him having to explain it. She should have been scared, frightened of a possible solution brought by the kronide. There was one thing the elder gods surpassed their titans predecessor without any doubt and it was in cruelty. None of those emotions came to grip her heart.
She was tired and if it was a way to finally end her immemorial torment, she would take it even if it meant her doom. Life wasn't a fairytale where fairness and justice prevailed. It was instead a never-ending gap of cruelty and suffering, one that had worn her down.
"Do it," she told him. " just make it quick if you ever truly loved me.
A frown bloomed on his beautiful face. At least, she would go, watching one of the most beautiful things in her eyes.
He nodded and the smell of the ocean began to overrun her nose. It smelled like an afternoon at the beach with the waves in the background and the yellow sand under her feet.
The divinity that he had from deep inside him was brought to the surface, took shape from his heart, climbed on his shoulder like a snake and coiled like a black mamba before jumping toward her heart.
For a moment, nothing happened and she wondered what it was supposed to do. It would have been disappointing if it was just this with all the gravitas the god emanated. She had the answer to her question when her heart began to burn. It felt as if the fire of Hephaestus's forge had been poured on her heart. She had thought that she knew suffering but nothing could compare to what she was feeling right now.
She has trusted him again like a fool. Shame on her the mortal quote said for being tricked a second time. It wouldn't be wrong to say that She had jumped from a shark-filled ocean to being trapped between Charybdis and Scylla.
She was screaming and struggling against the strong grip of the ocean god a still sane part of her realised. She tried to use her freezing gaze on Poseidon but it didn't work. She tried to bite him with the snakes living on her head but it proved ineffective against him. She tried to do everything possible to make the pain stop.
It finally stopped and she fell like a marionette with cut strings into the now open arms of the elder god. She felt different as if she had been removed from a too-tight shirt. Something that had been missing from her, a core part of her existence that was stripped unjustly from her had been given back. A black loc of luscious hair was dangling where a snake should have been present. She couldn't feel any more of the tusk deformities that Athena had cursed her with.
Did he really do what she thought he did? She mustered her strength and departed from his arms. He didn't try to stop her. She inspected her hands now looking human and less like the claws of an anteater. She watched herself in the marble and found in the reflection the face of a comely woman. She touched her face, now smooth and not rugged like snakeskin and began to cry. It was really her. It wasn't a dream sent by an oneroi to hurt and torment her at her waking.
Poseidon hugged her and she fell into his arms" Thank you, thank you, thank you" she whispered endlessly to him while crying. What she had dreamed of, prayed and begged for centuries had finally been granted.
He Didn't Say or do anything except reinforce his hug. They stayed like that in a scenery of broken statues and never-ending rain. She had stopped crying but didn't leave the arms of her ex-lover. She wondered what all of this meant for her.
She was not a monster anymore. Athena if she learned that would never let her exist peacefully. By being free from her curse, she would invite the ire of Athena on her head be it directly or indirectly through mortal heroes or supernatural mercenaries. She would have to make contingency plans.
Going against an olympian was never a wise thing. It would be more accurate to call it suicidal but she never wanted to let herself suffer again because of the whimsical and deadly mood of a stronger deity.
The Lord of the sea lifted the comfortable silence with his words" I wanted to apologize for not having been there, for not protecting you".
After thinking for a moment, she answered in a weak voice"I forgive you but I could never forget Poseidon. If you knew what it was to be treated like a monster. If you knew how it felt to be rejected by most of your family. If you knew how much I suffered, you would understand."
He sighed." I didn't apologize because I wanted your forgiveness. I apologized to you because it was the right thing to do," Poseidon answered.
She was made voiceless and shocked. She loved Poseidon but she had never been blind to the fact that he was not the most mature god. He had after all always been the type of God that became angry due to childish reasons or that acted before they thought.
"You had changed," she told him.
" We all changed whether it is positive or negative. Nothing is eternal and immutable faced by the oceans of time even for us gods" he answered.
" Come with me under the sea where I'll be at my strongest, where no one would ever dare to hurt you" He continued.
She thought about going back to her home. She thought about never having to worry about being targeted by sadistic and cruel gods. She wanted to accept but there was something that life had taught her that was important. She had learned that nothing was ever free or coming with pure intentions. Why would Poseidon go against another Olympian just for her? What benefit could he gain from such action?
Even then, for how long would his protection stay? Would he discard her after using and breaking for a second time her heart? He already did it. Who says that he wouldn't again? She loved him and in the past, her love for him was greater than the one she had for herself but It wasn't the case anymore. Things had changed.
She had to think logically. Even though she wished from all her heart the contrary, she knew that he could only have done it either for a lustful reason, to provoke Athena or maybe the two reasons together. Thinking that he did it because of another reason would be foolish. Gods were rarely kind.
She knew what she had to do. She left the comfort of his arms and stood tall and spoke" The reason why you came is now perfectly clear ocean's lord. You didn't come here because of kindness or regret. You came because of lust. I knew that it was too perfect to be true. You finally show your true colours".
How could she have been this stupid" You thought that you could come like the shining knight, erase all my problems so I would open my legs for you, warm your bed. Isn't your queen or the mortals good enough? Did they become for now too boring for you" she spat angrily.
She didn't care about the fact that Poseidon could create worse torment than Athena. She was exhausted. She was tired to cower under stronger beings. She was tired of having her emotions being played with. If she suffered, she would do it proud her head high.
"It's not the case, I wanted to-…" Poseidon tried to protest but she cut him. Something that most would call foolish and dangerous.
"To do what Poseidon. I was so stupid to think you had changed, that you were better" she said quietly at the end "that you cared."
" you have to listen to me. I didn't do it for any other reasons than being ashamed and regretting not having done what I should have. I don't want you under the sea to be part of a harem or anything like that. Is it that hard to think that I care? " the lord of the sea questioned.
" It is in the nature of you and brethren my lord to hurt and lust after those weaker or lesser than you. Even with all of this, you know what's the funny thing"?
He now stood straight and taller than her and looked more like a beast than a creature in humanoid form. She didn't back down.
" I still love you" she continued" but I'll never let you use me like you did the first time".
The sky was now dark and angry. The ocean breeze that seemed soothing felt now threatening. The rain was falling violently on the ground making a sound resembling two hammers colliding. His eyes were now glowing a green acid. At that moment, he looked like the portrait of a Christian demon straight from hell.
The divine power that he had used to break her curse came back with vengeance to the surface and took the shape of a trident that he took in his left hand. The trident was pulsing like a human heart. To her mystical senses, the trident was akin to a beast trying to satiate its anger with the flesh and the existence of others.
The god gripped the trident and pointed towards her the three prongs at her. She didn't back down or try to flee. Even if she had wanted to, it would have been pointless. He could have reached her even at the edge of the world from the place where he stood. He twirled the trident switching the prongs to him and the staff-like part to her.
"Why are you doing?" she asked him confused.
"Showing you that I'm genuine".he answered. "It is something special," he said looking at the emerald trident with pride "in the sense that it erases divinity, making immortals mortals and I'm giving it to you" he finished.
It was a known fact that Greek deities couldn't die like mortals. You could behead them and they would walk it off. The only thing effective way to incapacitate a god, to make him as close to death as possible except by throwing him into the endless abyss that was chaos or removing their divinity like she and Poseidon and Appolo in the past were subjected to was to dismember them in many pieces and scatter those pieces in different places to make sure that the god didn't regenerate. It was how the Olympians won against their mad father, the titan lord of time and harvest Kronos.
But now, the paradigm had completely changed. Poseidon had found a way to bypass this immortality and make true the greatest fear of immortals, mortality.
She grabbed the end of the weapon. Poseidon let her remove the weapon from him. With such a weapon, a voice in her head told her, she had a chance to take revenge on Athena, to make her pay for the torture she was subjected to for thousands of years. The rational side of her reminded her that a god didn't need to be in close contact to hurt somebody and in case they were in close contact with an opponent, it wasn't sure that the said god wouldn't be able to dodge the attack with how differently they perceived the world from mortals. Hubris was always the beginning of the fall and she would not drink its alluring nectar.
"You are doing a very foolish thing Poseidon. I thought I had gone mad. Maybe I was mistaken about who the mad person was " Medusa said while pointing the green emerald trident at him.
Instead of backing down or even dissipating the trident, Poseidon did something so foolish she was left aghast. A feeling that was becoming common to her when dealing with the ocean god. He advanced toward the trident until it was at the level of his heart, the tip of the prong having pierced the chiton he wore making fall on the ground golden ichor slowly turning red.
"You asked me what I was doing earlier. Words are fickle and easy to make. They flow like the wind and disappear in a breeze. My words won't make you believe me but my actions can," he said while looking at her in her eyes
"I am one of the architects of your suffering. I was the one that promised to protect you and didn't. I had promised to love you and I didn't. I heard all those centuries your prayers to me, your sacrifices to my person and did nothing. I did nothing while you continued to declare your love to me in your prayers from ancient Greece till last week. If you kill me, you'll inherit my domains and would be strong enough to be able to take personally your revenge on Athena".
He was ready to sacrifice his immortal life to make sure that she trusted the veracity of his intentions, to make her accept his apology. He was ready to give up eternity for her. Could there be a better way to show love and care than being ready to give up everything?
Everything she had ever wanted was before her. She had love and power before her and longed for both. Love broke mentally and physically. It was a force that hurt and shredded the ego. Love was fragile. Love was the reason for her punishment. Power instead was reliable, and gave importance and protection. She knew what she wanted before all. The only thing left to do was to push forward the trident. She could see in his eyes no fear, no anger. Her grip on the trident hardened. She moved and leaned towards him. The trident pierced nothing.
She kissed him. He hesitated before kissing her back. She let the trident fall from her grip.
"I'll come with you," she said to him after stopping to kiss him. It had felt intoxicating in a good way and she wished to experience it again. On his face bloomed one of the most beautiful smiles. The decision she had taken was one that could only be called foolish. It would have been more rational to kill him and take his powers from herself. Only time would prove her right or wrong but for now, in the present, she'll love without limit and try to bask in the present.
"I won't make you regret your decision," he told her.
She smiled and kissed him again" Let's leave," she said. He hugged her and they disappeared far from her curse and despair-filled garden.
lewd*
They reappeared at the exterior of a palace that could only be called both gothic and divine. It was a structure with two towers with giant windows that looked like an ever-changing kaleidoscope of colour. The facade of the palace was one akin to the facade of a cathedral. On the roof were built statues of sea monsters that almost felt alive as if their immobility was a trick to make intruders lower their guards.
Poseidon opened the door and she was greeted by Floors made of orichalcum gold. Walls made of pearl and white diamonds.
The opulence presented before her was one even the richest of mortals could only dream of. An exquisite chandelier was installed on the ceiling. The height of the ceiling was to her calcul at least greater than 50 meters.
Since she had been undersea, she had begun to feel as if pure energy was directly injected into herself to strengthen her. The effect increased when she entered with Poseidon in the palace.
She was feeling drunk, dizzy as if she had taken too much nectar. Poseidon had stopped kissing her and was now talking of something about servants or whatever that he thought important.
"None of that matter for now," she told him and shut him with his kiss. She battled against his tongue for supremacy for a moment before he won. Her centre felt hot and she could feel running on her left leg arousal.
"So what does matter now?" Poseidon asked her playfully while nibbling at her neck. She couldn't resist and moaned.
She pushed him back to regain some control. Even though she was really horny, it would honestly be embarrassing if she came only for kisses and bites but hey, it wasn't her fault.
It was Athena's fault. Since she's been cursed, she hadn't felt the touch of a man or a woman on her body.
"This place is mine, you say," she told Poseidon but it won't be really the case until something important is done".
Lust was shining in the god's eyes and she was sure that she shared the same look as him even though she couldn't see herself.
"What will it have to be done to make it truly yours," he asked while his lips skimmed over hers.
"We have to baptize it," she told him.
He laughed" isn't that an Abrahamic tradition "
"Yes, but if they can seal from other pantheons. Why can't we do the same she shrugged".
"Let's do a Greek version of it" she whispered to his right ear before biting it. Her body melted into his. She felt his iron-like chest, she basked in the power that by his only existence made the world bask in. She traced the curvature of his muscles.
While she was exploring his body, he didn't stay idle. His hands caressed her back making her shiver in anticipation before he came to the level of her ass and grabbed it with both of his hands roughly.
"Hn…" a moan escaped from her throat
"This time" she continued" I'll be the holy water in which you absolve your sins, where you'll release all of yourself".
Before she could react, he had taken her in his arms and with one step, change the place they were. They were now in a gigantic bedroom with a bed that looked more like a natural cloud than an artificially made one.
He let her fall on the bed. "Strip" he commanded and she did. She removed slowly her t-shirt teasing him before removing completely and letting her boobs bounce.
She removed her pants which were now stained because of her arousal. The god before her watched her as if she was a meal that he couldn't wait to devour, to ruin and it excited her.
"I did as you asked my lord," she said coyly. "What will happen to such a pure maiden like me now? She said while batting her eyes.
The Lord of the Oceans didn't answer. The clothes he wore disappeared in green most and left him naked in all his glory. She began to salivate. All from the length of his members to his naked body produced in her mind images of debauchery.
His long rod came to contact with her lips. She didn't need him to talk to know what he wanted at this moment. She opened her mouth and the tip of his rod penetrated her mouth.
She choked but persevered. She was immortal which means that she didn't need to breathe to live like mortals and that she could do things that they would not have been able to do without experience or hurting themselves.
His penis slides deeper into her mouth until it made an obscene scene of her mouth and throat having taken its shape. His balls were now gangling all over her chin.
"Are you okay?" he asked her. It made her head flutter. She answered his question by sucking on his member and looking at him in the eyes.
It was enough of a confirmation for the god, because, he began to slide in and out of her mouth. The face fucking he was giving her created squelch noises.
She continued to watch him like a submissive slut while he fucked her mouth. From her core was coming froth a deluge because of how aroused she was.
"Yeah, like that. You feel so good" the Olympian god moaned in her mouth. To make it more pleasurable for him, she began to vibrate her mouth as if she was singing.
She felt as if she was lost in a haze, and had exaggerated on a beverage made by Dionysus himself. It was probably whorish to think such a thing but she could see herself living her complete immortal existence doing this.
After a long amount of time, she felt precum leak from the tip of his penis to her throat. She tasted and almost went bad. It tasted so good that she wanted to experience it again, to drain the sea god from his self-made nectar.
She began moving her head back and forth while she deepthroated him. Saliva mixed with precum was running from her mouth and falling on her naked body and her cloud-like bed.
What she was working for finally happened and Poseidon busted into her mouth. She swallowed it like a mad worshipper before a gift of his deity. It continued to flow without an end in her mouth.
She swallowed all of the semen of the god while looking at him in the eyes. He removed his dick from her mouth and smeared some left cum on her face.
"Thank you for this divine gift my lord," she said while smiling at the god. His cock hadn't deflated. It looks more like a weapon than a penis.
Her inside felt hot as if she had a burning furnace inside of her that feverishly needed to be extinguished by one thing, by his essence.
She let herself fall on her back on the cloud bed. She used her fingers to show the horny god before her how much she was aroused.
She couldn't support it anymore. She begged the God" Please my lord, make me yours again".
The god came to the bed. His shaft pressed for a moment her thigh before brushing against her wet pussy. He intertwined their fingers. They were now in a missionary position.
He looked at her face as if checking if she hadn't any doubt, as if asking if she really wanted to do so. She nodded a yes with her head.
The member of the god sank into her vagina. She moaned. She could almost feel every minuscule part of it. She could feel each of the veins. It felt right as if her vagina had been the perfect sheath for his dick.
Poseidon began to thrust in and out hitting places she didn't she had. She tried to retain her most but was unable and began to moan wantonly.
Her pussy was getting spread by his thick member. The god began to trust harder and quickly set a pace. Her naked body was shaking and jiggling.
One of her boobs was cupped and played with by Poseidon while he fucked her. She could feel herself lose complete control of her bodily functions.
The thrust of Poseidon into her created a symphony of squelches and squishes and moans.
One of the thrusts Poseidon reached a pleasurable spot in her and she came hard. Pleasure flooded her and she lost control of her bodily functions. When she came back to her sense, she realised that Poseidon hadn't cum at the same time as her. It had to be rectified.
With the god still inside of her, she in verses their position to be on top of him. The god to that merely lifted an eyebrow and left her to do what she had planned.
She lifted herself slowly from him leaving only the tip of his cock before sliding down hard.
His hands didn't stay idle and grabbed my backside.
I began to ride him up and down. He helped by making her fall harder and harder on his dick. His penis didn't leave anything untouched in her quivering core and she loved it.
The god stood up with her still bouncing on his dick. The way he completely dominated her, made her feel like putty in his hand drove her mad.
She could feel another climax approaching. She began to bounce harder using his shoulders as support. We both came, and I could feel his divine semen fill her to the brim, jet after jet shooting in me. I couldn't really feel my legs.
He put me on the bed and asked" Are you alright". Maybe I would regret it in the future but seeing the love and the care in his eyes and his complexion, any regret that I may have disappeared.
"I'm alright beloved even if I don't feel my legs for now" she answered.
"Sorry," he said while putting a hand on the back of his neck.
"It doesn't mean that we can not do anything else my lord" She turned around exposing her big heart shapes ass.
His dick took life again and made her scream all night.
There are some parts I think that could be better and that I'm not satisfied with but it is what it is. Hope y'all like it.
Chapter 3
Wrote this chapter listening to those two songs endlessly. Maybe it'll help put you in what I think is the appropriate mood for this chapter: https/open./track/6Ec5LeRzkisa5KJtwLfOoW?si=UHBxbh7vQrq5eNT-vYTeOA and https/open./track/11X3DkCPUOEX4okR6xSsRV?si=P4O8AbKwTOeLbz_eY3LTLw.
They waited while it rained for a bus. The sky looked dark and ominous as if ready to fall on them. He wondered if Zeus or other gods were actually watching him the same way bored people liked to watch reality shows to laugh at the participant.
Grover was eating an apple for the moment and it seemed that it wasn't the first one because of how fast he ate it. He was sending him looks when he thought Percy wasn't watching.
Annabeth was reading a voluminous Greek book opened in her right hand and playing with a quarter in her left hand. He could not tell what book it was because trying to read the title of it had made all the words begin to dance and gave him a killer headache.
He had tried to try to stay still until the time the bus came but he felt too full of restless energy to be able to do such. He tried to get rid of his boredom with the pen that Mr Brunner had given him to distract himself by throwing it away each time it came to his pocket.
The bus finally came. They stood in line to board the bus. Everything seemed fine if slow until Grover tensed and began sniffing the air like a dog. Fortunately, other would-be passengers did not seem to pay attention to what Grover was doing. It would have been a little bit embarrassing to have all the attention focused on them especially when there were posters of him everywhere.
He grabbed Riptide in his pocket but didn't remove the blade still in a pen form from it. "Are you smelling something Grover?" he asked. Satyrs had apparently a very acute smell that allowed them to detect demigods and monsters.
He began paying attention to the other passengers trying to find something or someone that didn't look normal. He found nothing yet didn't relax.
"I don't know" he answered. "I smelled nothing. It was probably in my head". He still looked tense as if shadows would be jumping at us.
The grey eyes of Annabeth were scanning everything around as if trying to find a detail that could show if anything was wrong.
They were finally able to board the bus without any problem. They chose seats at the back of the bus to be able to see everything happening on the bus. Luke had called it being aware of your surroundings. Luke had taught him that a lack of awareness could mean death whether it was inside or outside a fight.
The last passenger that boarded the bus was a middle-aged woman with brown hair that fell on her shoulders. She had an aquiline nose and was dressed in a suit that he knew just by looking at it that had a price superior to the annual salary of his mother. She wore on her foot hunting boots with the mark Zamberlan written on them. She looked striking in an intimidating and mean way.
He focused on her face. She reminded him of somebody and he rarely made errors on the faces of people. When he realised who it was, he gasped out loud.
Annabeth and Grover had turned their heads toward him. "I know who it is. It is Miss Dodd".
Grover had begun to panic and Annabeth looked confused. He realised that Annabeth didn't know who Miss Dodd was.
Grover explained for him "It is a kindly one. She masqueraded as a teacher like Chiron at Yancy and attacked percy. If Mr Brunner hadn't helped by giving percy a weapon, he would have died."
The panic began to appear in the eyes of Annabeth. Her left hand was holding her dagger and shaking. He couldn't judge her because he was as scared as her.
The last time, the only reason he was able to win was luck and surprise but now, Miss Dodd will be cautious and take him seriously. She was an immortal older than the current Gods. At camp, he had learned that they were born from the blood of Ouranos when he was castrated by his son Kronos with his scythe.
"She didn't stay dead long," percy said, trying to keep his voice from quivering. "I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime," he told Annabeth.
"I said if you're lucky," Annabeth said. "You're obviously not."
The kindly one sat in the first row behind the driver. It meant that they wouldn't be able to escape the bus without walking before her except if they jumped through the windows while the bus was driving.
"It's okay," Annabeth said, obviously thinking hard about a way for us to get out of this situation still alive. "One of The kindly ones. One of The three most feared monsters from the Underworld. No problem. No problem. We'll just slip out the windows."
Grover at her words tried to open the windows at his side. They stayed unmoving. Percy swore that he could see something resembling a fog cloaking them. Well, they were screwed without any doubt "They don't open," Grover moaned in despair.
"A back exit?" Annabeth suggested. There wasn't one. Even if there had been, it wouldn't have helped. By that time, we were on
Ninth Avenue, heading for the Lincoln Tunnel.
"She won't attack us with witnesses around," he said. "Right?"
"Mortals don't have good eyes," Annabeth reminded him. "Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist. They still believe that the moon landing was true and that other planets except Earth exist."
Percy didn't try to ask for clarification. What came out of Annabeth's mouth wouldn't be foreign coming from conspiracy theorists that were seen as nutcases. It was ironic that they were probably more right about the truth of the world than world leaders or scientists.
"They'll see an old lady killing us, won't they?" percy asked her.
She thought about it for a moment. "Hard to say. But we can't count on mortals for help. Maybe there's an emergency exit in the roof… ?"
They hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle. It was eerily quiet without the sound of the rain.
Mrs Dodds got up and turned in their direction. She seemed to have known where they were all that time. Percy removed Riptide from his pocket and put one his finger on the ballpark of the pen and grabbed for comfort the collar his dad had gifted to him. He already won against her and this time he wasn't alone plus he was a demigod of Poseidon the ruler of the oceans, one of the big three. It meant something right?
From the left hand of Miss Dodds came something akin to a spark. It flickered like falling embers on the ground. It began to take the shape of a handle before expanding into a lash of flames. It brought by its existence a smell of sulfur and an insupportable smell of rotting flesh. To those wondering how could he know this smell, well Percy lived in New York so yeah.
Percy just by looking at it thought that being struck by it would if not kill him hurt a lot. The mortals had begun cowering. Percy wondered what the mist showed them to make sure they were unable to be aware of the godly side of the world.
The fury with a movement on her hand launched an attack in a horizontal line with her fire shape whip that was marked by an ear-deafening mini boom. "Duck" Grover screamed. They dodged at the last moment by throwing themselves on the ground. Percy even if he hadn't been touched could feel a burning sensation as if he was too close to a burning fire.
Percy pressed the ballpark of riptide and where there was a pen was now a balanced Greek one-handed double-edged sword made of celestial bronze. They got back up and were greeted by screams, blood, beggings and death and were left scared and disgusted by the result of the monster attack.
Every mortal that had been on the trajectory of the attack, so every mortal on the bus except the bus driver who was screaming before falling silent like a puppet by a wave of the hand of Miss Dodd had been affected by Miss Dodds's attack. The lucky ones had died instantaneously. The unlucky ones were the ones still alive, that had tried to dodge but were unable to do so completely because they either hadn't been on their guard like the demigods or were not fast enough. From the 56 seats, they were the only ones untouched.
Percy could see an old man before him screaming himself hoarse because of the bleeding stump were existed not a long time ago all of his right arm. He could see not far from the old man a crying toddler missing a part of their skull held by the beheaded body of their parents that had tried to protect them.
There were across the car a dozen of similar scenes happening. It looked like hell. Vomit tried to go up from inside him but he stopped it. Grover wasn't able to do the same and puked all the apples and enchiladas he had eaten. The one amongst them that seemed the least affected of them was Annabeth even if she had turned an unhealthy green colour.
"We have to find a way to escape," Annabeth said to them. The fury was coming in their direction slowly like a predator playing with their prey and in that case, they were the prey. The snake headband of the kindly one had become alive and filled along in the bus the songs of agonies and despair with hisses.
"Find a plan quickly wise girl or we are toasted" Percy said to the daughter of the war goddess. The eyes of Annabeth were jumping in every direction on the bus trying to find details that would help her formulate a plan.
"I have found one" Annabeth said, "even if I find it dangerous and prone to failure".
"It's the only plan we have. It's better than nothing" Grover said to her while cleaning traces of vomit on his mouth with a sweep of his hand. Percy if they survived against Alecto wasn't going to let Grover hug or touch him without cleaning his hand.
"So here's the plan" Annabeth began. "you Percy and I are going to distract her". Nah, he retired everything he said or thought about Annabeth. That was the dumbest plan he ever heard. Instead of calling it a plan of escape, maybe it would be better to call it a plan to turn Percy into a shish kebab. Grover must have been thinking the same thing due to the expression on his face.
She continued, "I know it sounds crazy but we won't be able to escape the bus due to the fact that the only entrance is accessible only by confronting the kindly one. Grover, can you use one of your satyrs sounds to create an entrance in the back?
Grover grabbed his chin while thinking "I can but with us being on a road of asphalt and concrete and being in movement and not being in the wild, it's going to take time".
Annabeth removed her dagger from its holster "We'll buy some time. Everything depends on you Grover. If you fail…". Percy didn't need her to finish her sentence to know what she meant.
He forced himself to stop shaking, to stand still. 'Dad' he called in his mind. He felt the attention of his father on him. "At any time you can stop," the ghostly voice of his father whispered to him.
'I will continue,' he answered to the voice of his father. He felt a kiss on the crown of his head and the presence of his father disappeared.
Grover had begun to play a melody on his flute his back turned to the fury. He was scared yet was trusting Annabeth and percy with his life. With a nod in the direction of Annabeth, they threw themselves at the monster.
A grin split the face of the fury "Finally, a little fight! It wouldn't have been enjoyable if you didn't." she sent the whip at them. Percy could see the world begin to slow, see everything around him as if he was for a moment omniscient.
He dodged the attack by jumping on the wall of the left, taking some steps on it in an act a professional of parkour would be proud of and regaining the floor of the bus after the whip passed to the place where he was an instant before. He could see in the corner of his eyes that Annabeth had also dodged successfully by gliding on her knees.
Percy did something that he was taught to never do in a fight. He threw his sword at the fury. The sword flew in an arc towards the monster shining like a golden halo. She dodged by simply moving her head to the side. She lifted an eyebrow as if asking if it was all he could do. Annabeth and he were now 7 meters away from the fury.
With a movement of her hand, the whip began to fly back toward its master. Percy was able to feel the incoming attack by the heat emanating from the weapon. They dodged by throwing themselves on the left and right side of the bus.
Riptide was back in Percy's pocket. He put pressure on the ballpark to make the weapon retake its sword form. The whip had touched the ground at the centre of the bus and had obliterated it. Percy could see the road speeding under them.
'Better not be touched by this or it's game over' percy thought. "I've let you come at me but the both of you are taking too much time" Bat wings exploded in dark gore from the back of Miss Dodds. A slasher smile full of black canines bloomed on the kindly one face. "It means that I'll have to come toward you."
With a flap of them, she was in his face. She used her free hand to swipe at his face with her claws. Percy dodged by throwing himself back. He watched how her claws passed millimetres away from his face. She missed him but grazed him leaving him with an uneven haircut.
By throwing himself backwards, he had fallen into the blood and body parts of a now-dead passenger. The smell of iron overpowered his nose. He felt blood stick to his clothes wetting them. He suppressed the nausea and the panic. Now was surviving. Crying and addressing traumas would be after if they survived.
Annabeth hadn't stayed idle and had used her dagger to try to stab the now unprotected back of the monster. Miss Dodd stopped her attack by grabbing her hand and knocking her head against a window cracking it. It didn't stop Annabeth. Her dagger had remained in her hand. With a swift movement, she tried to plunge it into one of the eyes of the kindly one. Alecto caught it with two fingers.
"Aren't you a feisty one?" the kindly one said to Annabeth. "Fortunately, I know how to deal with your kind." The kindly one with the hand that was still gripping the head of the daughter of Athena threw again, again, again and again, the head of Annabeth in the windows in quick succession until I heard the window break.
Annabeth was now unmoving and it scared him. Blood, her blood was running from her head dying her blonde lock in a scarlet colour. He may have disliked her but Percy never wanted her dead or close to it. "I had thought that she would have been able to take more but hey, she's demigod. They're always disappointments," he heard Alecto say before she threw the body of Annebeth in the range of seats just behind him
She had begun bleeding from other parts of her body. She looked and seemed to be out of commission. Her still bleeding gave Percy hope. It meant that even if injured Annabeth was still alive. Percy hoped that she would be able to survive a little longer. It was only him now facing the kindly one. He hoped that Grover was almost finished or none of them will be able to survive.
The crack of a whip made percy move. Staying still meant death and percy wasn't ready to give up on living yet, not as long he didn't succeed in innocenting his father and saving his mom. The ocean is everywhere, he remembered his father's words. Percy called for it.
There was a sensation in the pit of his stomach like a tug. For a moment, nothing happened. Miss Dodds continued to come towards him with a murderous grin on her face as if she already had won. The fire whip was trailing behind her, screeching against the floor of the bus. Grover hadn't been able to find a new way for them to escape like they had hoped.
Percy grabbed Riptide with his two hands. If he died, he would go fighting and not begging. "Sorry Dad" he whispered. The presence of his dad was back and felt playful as if he knew something that percy did not know.
They were now on the highway "It's the end for you son of Poseidon" the monster slurred. Percy prepared to dodge or counterattack when water exploded from the asphalt under them violently. It unbalanced the bus and sent all the passengers dead or alive in different directions.
Percy must have blacked out for a moment because he was on the bus a moment and a minute after was on one the shoulders of a running Grover with Annabeth on the other one.
He could see behind them the wreckage that was the bus they had taken. Other cars had stopped and their drivers were screaming because of the dead bodies that were still inside the car from which blood was pooling on the ground. The accident had also sent mangled corpses on the road. It was raining creating a mess of light-coloured blood everywhere.
Percy hoped that the accident if not knocking out had hurt Miss Dodds. Alas, it was proven that he was hated by Tyche when not a second after that, the fury exploded from the roof of the car into the highway.
Miss Dodds looked unharmed if not pissed. She looked as if she wanted to hurt them very much. She sniffed the air and turned towards them.
"Grover" percy called the satyr. "She knows where we are. There is no point in running. She won't let us escape."
Grover still continued to run "I have to try. I can not let her hurt Annabeth or you. If you die, you go directly to the realm of your uncle, something they want and if it happens, they'll torture you for all eternity. I can not let that happen to my friend"
Percy felt warm. The prophecy had told him that he would be betrayed by a friend and for a moment, he had thought it to be Grover but he had refused to entertain such thought. He has been right. Grover wasn't perfect. He had a lot of defaults but there was one thing he wasn't and that was disloyal.
The rain percy remarked was making him feel better. His head was becoming clearer and clearer. A strength that he had never felt before was filling him. It was as if straight energy was being put into his veins. The collar his dad had given him felt warm.
With a Swift movement, percy left the shoulder on Grover to face the kindly one watching him. He didn't feel scared anymore. He felt as if he could move mountains as if nothing could stop him. The rain began to fall harder. Riptide in its xiphos form was now encased by a sheath of water. He ignored Grover screaming at him to stop. He ignored and forgot his pain. There was only one thing that mattered now and it was the Death of Miss Dodds.
He didn't know what the kindly one saw while she watched him but she was now watching him cautiously now more like another predator than a prey.
There was between the two of them a distance of 30 meters. With a tap of his heel, percy closed the distance cratering the ground behind him and appearing before the fury with Riptide ready to bisect her. His attack was blocked by the reappearance of Miss Dodds's whip. She had used the handle of it to block.
He may not have hit her but she had for the first time since the beginning of their fight taken a step behind. The ground around them had exploded outwards sending flying to the mortal onlookers broken fragments of asphalt. Percy didn't pay attention to the screams around him. He focused only on his adversary who was grinding her teeth.
He didn't let her take a breath. With a movement of his hip, percy put on the side the handle of the monster and round-kicked her in the face with a foot encased in water.
She was sent careening on the other side of the road. He put his sword on a shoulder and made a movement with his free hand in a come here movement.
It enraged the downed fury that with a scream disappeared from the ground to reappear before him making a descending strike with her flame weapon that had turned into a sword. Her sword strike was met by riptide. An explosion was born of their confrontation. Percy felt his bones rattle. He ignored it. He would worry about Pain later.
He stabbed forward trying to penetrate the skin of the monster but she dodged by spinning like a ballerina before trying to cut him on his side. Riptide was there to meet her strike.
The force of the strike sent him flying. Percy stops himself by doing a wheel in the air to fall on his feet. Miss Dodds was in his face swinging. He dodged on the left and rewarded her attack with a left hook.
She snarled and answered with a headbutt. Percy willed the rain to change and morph into something else and it took the shape of needles. It fell on the emplacement of the monster. She escaped by throwing herself away from him.
Percy followed her not leaving her time to think. Riptide flew true and nicked her in the face. From it, golden ichor, the blood of the gods began to pool.
The monster touched her face as if shocked that it could have happened. "how dare you? how dare you? HOW DARE YOU?!" she screamed. Her scream shook the ground. It was as if an earthquake was happening. "You committed the greatest crime a mortal can do, make an immortal bleed. For that sin, I'll make you pay Percy Jackson. I tried to go easy on you due to the fact that I still saw you as a child. No more quarter Perseus" the fury said before flying to him.
He used riptide to block her attack and was sent as a result into two cars completely obliterating them before being stopped by the median strip that cracked. It hurt percy had to admit but feeling pain was good. It meant that he was still alive and that's what mattered.
The pain began to disappear slowly. If it wasn't for the water, percy didn't think that he would have survived. People all around them were screaming and he could see in the air a helicopter with news written on it as if it couldn't be worse.
Percy didn't have more time to think before the fury launched herself at him. She didn't only have a fire sword. She had now orbited around her fire knives that she sent flying to him in quick succession.
Percy dodged the first one by diving to the side. It went on and on through the median strip and turned everything close from it ablaze. The asphalt on the other side of the road had begun melting.
She sent the remaining knives to him. Percy met them by strikes of riptide. He disregarded the unsupportable heat, the deafening explosion they made when they entered in contact with Riptide. He pushed forward.
Miss Dodds expected a strike on the right. He let her believe so and tricked her. At the moment she prepared herself to Parry on the right, Percy created with a thought a spear of water that exploded when entering in contact with her sending her flying.
Percy needed to finish the fight quickly. Even in the water, he didn't feel he could continue fighting at this rate. He had to be faster. He pushed, his foot broke, regenerated stronger and sent him towards his enemy.
She met his charge snarling. They continued to fight. Each of their attacks was cratering the ground around them, and creating deep gashes on the road. In their exchanges, they appeared as two blurs of colour, blue and dark red clashing against each other.
Each clash hurt percy, rattling his bones, making it harder to fight but he continued to fight. His right hand broke so he used his left one while the other one healed under the water effect and became stronger. He felt dizzy as if he was dreaming of everything happening.
He made an error and paid it in blood. The sword of Miss Dodds met his flesh. It burned, burned so much that his mind almost went blank. He grabbed the fire sword in his shoulder holding the fury in place before trying to stab her with Riptide.
She dodged and took some distance. "It's been a while since I had such an exhilarating hunt son of Poseidon, no Perseus Jackson but it's just a question of time before you lose. Give up and embrace death. I'll advocate for you before my king".
She looked and sounded sincere and to be honest, percy felt more exhausted than he ever had been in his life before. A big part of him wanted to accept but he reminded himself of everything he would lose if he did. He answered the proposition of the fury by strengthening his grip and taking an attack stance.
"Such a shame" the kindly one lamented before he attacked her. Their exchanges began again. Percy tried to use the rain around them to fight but each of their encounter vaporized around them every raindrop of water and they were moving too fast for the water to help when percy wished for it.
He began to make errors after errors. He began to take wounds, a cut on his forearm, a punch in the guts, overextended strikes yet he didn't give up. He had to have faith in his chances or it would be like declaring defeat.
The kindly one broke their stalemate by crashing a fire sword into riptide sending him flying 50 meters away. Percy fell on his back m scratching against the road. He wondered where Grover and Annabeth were. He hoped that they were alright and felt sorry to be the reason their first quest would fail.
He stood with difficulty. He felt as if he was one giant walking bruise. The water was still healing him but he was taking damage more quickly than the healing of the water.
The road looked now like the scene of an apocalyptic movie with fire and screams everywhere. The raining sky had turned red because of the smoke and the fire and the embers resulting from Miss Dodds's attacks. It felt weirdly beautiful.
"Call for all of it" the voice of his father whispered in his head. It was his last chance. The next minutes would either be the ones of his death or of his victory.
He called, no commanded the presence of every trace of moisture and water around him. The tug in the pit of his stomach hurt but he disregarded it. The kindly one walked toward him like a hunting lion on the brink of killing a wounded pray.
He continued to call for the water and he could sense gigantic amounts of it answering but they were taking too much time. At this rhythm, The fury would kill him before he could do anything.
The kindly one stopped walking. Something was tugging at her heels not allowing her to take more steps towards him. It was a Liana. Another came to life bursting from the ground and coiled around the body of Alecto, a music accompanying its presence.
There was only one person that it could be. It was Grover. "Leave my friend alone you ugly-looking bat monster" Grover screamed. Percy knew that he was probably scared to death yet Grover had chosen to come back for him. Percy could feel tears falling from his eyes.
The monster enraged, burned the lianas and for a moment, Percy thought that he would have to be cursed again by seeing somebody he loved dying before him again.
The monster threw herself at Grover and was met by a thrown dagger in her left eye. The daughter of Athena even weakened had acted at the perfect moment to avoid a tragedy. "Don't you forget me Fury." she looked pale and blood had dyed her hair but except that, she looked alright if not exhausted.
The monster screamed in anger and removed the dagger from her bleeding eyes. She looked murderous. Fortunately, what percy had tried to do since the beginning of the fight had succeeded.
High in the sky, the clouds had taken the shape of a giant trident. The shadow of it percy was sure probably engulfed all of Manhattan. He focused on it and twisted it.
The giant trident had become solid.
"Hey Miss Dodds" percy called to the kindly one. She turned towards him. "Look up". She did and began to panic.
She began to glow brightly. "She's trying to take her true form" Annabeth screamed.
As if he would let her. "Dad" he prayed. "Watch me". The trident fell on the shining kindly own and the world screamed. White overcame his vision and percy finally slipped into the realm of Hypnos.
Chapter 4
Wrote this chapter listening to that song: . Kinda disappointed with this chapter but it is what its is. Hope y'all like it.
Atlantis was a bursting hive of activity Triton thought. The impending war between the heavens and the sea had made every sea-affiliated or related supernatural being come back under the oceans.
Few of them liked Zeus and this war was a way for them to end the thirst for the blood of the Olympians that they felt.
Triton understood them. He understood their hatred, their anger, the way they wanted to lash out against the cruel sky god and his brethren even if it sounded suicidal.
Triton was born after the first titan war as the first child of Poseidon, the fifth child and second son of the titan king and the titan queen and of Amphitrite, the first and strongest child of Nereus, a primordial and of the Oceanid Doris.
It meant that he was born with the world at his fingertips. He lived in opulence that even some God kings in other pantheons didn't live in. It meant that he was born with enormous power at his disposal.
Gifts and luxuries had been rained on him since his birth. He never had to want or need for anything. It sounded like a perfect life, right?
It wasn't one. He didn't need to be told by anyone to know that there wasn't any existing love between his parents or it would be more accurate to say that it was a one-sided love from his mother to his father. Poseidon married Amphitrite for what she represented.
She was powerful, graceful and divine and Poseidon wanted Amphitrite to be his. Poseidon has been given the oceans to rule after the Titanomachy when there was already in place a strong ruler, the great Titan Oceanus.
The Titan had stayed neutral in the Titan war and still had sovereignty over the body of Pontus. Poseidon even though he was strong, even though he was the child of his parents needed two things to seat his complete dominion over the seas.
Poseidon needed legitimacy and somebody as powerful if not stronger than him to support his claim. Even though the ocean sang to every action taken by him, Poseidon wasn't born from it. For centuries, Poseidon tried to find a way to assume control over the oceans.
One of the allies he made in his conquest of the sea, The sea god Delphin proposed to him the idea of marriage and more precisely, marriage to the pearl of the sea, the only goddess that could by herself supersede the authority of all the others sea divinities combined except Pontus himself, to Amphitrite who was considered beautiful even among Goddesses.
The mortal myths say that his mother ran away in an attempt to hide when his father proposed to her. It couldn't be more wrong. Poseidon was the one that ran. He had found out that the goddess he had wanted to woo was more akin to a terrible abomination than a goddess.
Amphrite had inherited everything wrong or right depending on who you ask of her forefathers. Poseidon's action had done something that he would regret forever.
Poseidon made Amphitrite pay attention, he made her notice. Triton still didn't know what Amphitrite had seen in Poseidon but the Nereid had fallen in love.
She hunted after the god in the oceans. When he fled from the ocean to escape her, she followed him to the surface. Her mere presence upon the surface of the Earth created great floods, and tempests the world over.
Hundreds of thousands of mortals died being claimed by the sea. No god tried to stand in the path of the goddess. Meanwhile, Poseidon had hidden himself in Olympus with his siblings.
They hid Poseidon as long as they could but the Olympians weren't only masters of the natural world and its concepts but also of the lords and protectors of the mortals that were begging them to free them from their torment.
The Kronides chained Poseidon with their powers and gave him to the Sea Goddess to do with him as she wished. Amphitrite knew that his father feared her, and didn't love her but she had told herself that with time, love would eventually bloom between the two of them.
She built the city of Atlantis for the two of them and made Oceanus abdicate his crown for Poseidon. She made every sea creature swear for fealty before him in fear of Annihilation or banishment from the seas.
She made Poseidon stronger and Amphritrite taught him the secrets of the sea. She taught him secrets and knowledge that would make even some Gods go mad. She connected herself to him at a metaphysical level making sure that he would never be able to fade as long as she existed.
She gave him children, strong and beautiful children even among Gods. None of those things made him love her. Poseidon was a god known for cheating on his wife, to have multiple children divine or mortal out of his marriage.
Triton had once asked angrily feeling slighted for his mother why couldn't he stay faithful? His father had answered him with haunted eyes by the fact that he feared his queen. He had been shocked and appaled by his answer and had for centuries been cold toward his father.
His father made him heir, maybe to try to repair a relationship with his now estranged and cold first child. Triton had seen it as an insult. What was the point of the existence of the title of an heir when they were Gods?
It meant nothing and changed nothing. Those days had been days where he lived more like a machine than a god. He stopped caring, he stopped trying, and he stopped loving. Knowing how to Pretend was his true inheritance.
It lasted like this for centuries until the birth of his miracle, his light, of his baby girl, of his unique child, of his daughter Pallas. She gave back through her existence warmth to his cold heart.
She gave him the desire to try, the desire to be better, to live and not exist for the first time in his immortal life. Through her presence, she reconciled his father and him.
Through her, they bonded again and tried to build a new, better relationship than what they had. Because of her, his father tried to be a benevolent God. He began to be more merciful and less prone to anger. He even stopped cheating and tried to begin to build a relationship with Amphitrite.
Everything seemed perfect. He should have known that his happiness wouldn't last forever, that the Fates, cruel as they are wouldn't let him have a happy ending.
It all began with the birth of Athena, daughter of Metis, goddess of wisdom and the first queen of Olympus. Zeus had acceded to his throne by toppling his father in the same way the titan king did with the help of his siblings and his mother.
Zeus was Scared of a future child dethroning him the same way he usurped his own father so he went to the daughters of Ananke the unescapable, the Fates. He asked them how could he maintain his throne and not be usurped like his predecessors before him. He asked them how to break the cycle.
They had laughed at Zeus' face. They had told him that nothing was eternal, that his reign will end the same way others' reign before him did. Zeus had been prophesied by them that a wise child will be born from Metis, a child stronger and wiser than Zeus that would usurp him.
Zeus grew fearful. He made a plan to ensure that such a future wouldn't happen when he should have known that the thread of fates spared no one. He invited Metis into the wild and made sweet love to her. He acted as the perfect husband.
Near the end of the day, he proposed a contest with her and Metis, the Oceanid was wise but unfortunately, more prideful than wise. Zeus told her that if she won, she could ask for any boon that she wanted. She accepted. To her credit though, she almost made it.
She was supposed to be a prey animal and him a predator. She had to reach Olympus before being caught by Zeus or she would lose. Metis almost won. She would have if Zeus hadn't made a deal with the dryads of the forest where they had been when he proposed the challenge.
She lost and Zeus swallowed her and the pregnant babe she had in her belly.
Zeus completely subsumed the Titaness and usurped the domains of wise council and prudence from her. Her last act would be to use her divine power to allow the survival of her daughter and clothe her daughter with arms and armour.
If she hadn't done this, Athena wouldn't have survived. When she was born from the skull of her father, the first action that was taken by him was to blast her with the master bolt.
She survived and fell from Olympus into the oceans, the original home of her mother where she would be raised by Triton and Amphritite alongside Pallas.
She grew wise and strong in the ocean with Pallas. They were more than sisters. It could even be said that they were soulmates.
One day, while they were sparing out of the protection and surveillance of their guardians, on the surface, atop an Island, Zeus saw his chance and tried to kill Athena. He sent with all of his might an attack on the turned back of Athena.
It wouldn't have killed Athena because she was a Goddess but Athena was still young and weak and such an attack if it had struck her would have made her as close to death as a god can be. She would have suffered a somatic death if she had been struck. She would have been made undone which meant that she wouldn't be able to dethrone Zeus, something Zeus wanted.
Pallas saw the attack coming and didn't think. She dodged a sword jab from Athena to put herself before her unprotected back with all her divine powers as her shield and barrier.
She did save the war goddess at the cost of her life. Pallas didn't have enough divinity in her to be even considered a minor goddess. She was only immortal in the sense that she could have lived forever and that only the strongest divine attacks could have ended her.
Triton remembers the rage that he had felt and how he was still feeling it to this day. The death of Pallas had broken and fragmented his family even worse than it had been before her birth.
Triton had never thought that the most precious thing he had in the world would be removed from him so violently. Was there anything worse in the world than losing a child? Was there anything worse than burying them?
Triton after that had closed himself to the exterior world. What was the point of anything without his child? Athena apologized to him, and asked for his forgiveness, saying that it was all her fault after Pallas's burial.
He ignored her cries, he ignored her when she called him father the day after the funeral of Pallas. Athena went back to the surface world and found a way to cease the hostility that her progenitor had toward her.
Centuries passed and his parents had other children. They didn't say it but he knew that they feared that he would try to fade. They thought that other siblings would make him feel better and would make him focus on something else than the death of his daughter.
He didn't care about them. The only thing that made him not choose to fade was hatred, deep, ugly and powerful hatred.
He wanted Zeus to pay, to lose everything he ever held dear. He waited centuries patiently and His wait was rewarded by an opportunity. The Archer twins, the goddess of the hearth, the goddess of earth, his father and Athena with other gods had betrayed Zeus and declared war on him.
It was the first and only Olympiomachy. The word shook, disasters hit the world endlessly. The sky screamed and the oceans roared. Nature raged and ichor fell on the mortal world like rain.
Countries were annihilated, maps redrawn, and ranges of mountains turned to dust. Triton had fought against the son of the second marriage of Zeus with his sister Hera. Even remembering today the screams that came out of the war god created a flicker of Warmth in his cold heart.
Athena was the one to put the final blow against her father. When it was time to give punishment to the defeated Gods, Athena advocated for mercy. She had watched him in the eyes as if to say sorry while advocating for it.
He raged against the decision. He had turned to his father sure that he would take his side. Poseidon didn't. The sky lord may have been a cruel and tyrannical god-king but it was his brother his lord father told him.
He knew when he retreated to the ocean that they had made an error. They didn't seem to understand that Zeus would never resign himself to a simple life.
What Zeus craved before all was power. For 1 millennium, the victorious gods reigned. They created wonders, and enforced peace and justice. They pushed for achievements never thought of before. They taught mortals how to write, how to build societies, and mechanical marvels that even to this day, they hadn't replicated.
None of that lasted forever. Zeus and his allies hadn't been idle. They had built their strength, built powerful weapons, they freed imprisoned titans to make them join their cause. They even added to their cause one of the most feared Mesopotamian goddesses, Ishtar to their army.
When they struck Olympus, Triton made sure that most sea creatures and gods wouldn't help the new regime. He stayed in the ocean watching. He watched and did nothing when past allies were tortured and dismembered.
The war between the new regime and the old one was a conflict destroying the planet itself.
None of that would have happened if they had listened to Triton. None of that would have happened if they had cared more for Pallas and not set her murderer free.
Athena seeing all the carnage created by the conflict abdicated her crown to her father. For that, her father didn't punish her but for the other gods like Apollo, Artemis and his father, they were punished harshly.
Zeus killed and raped before the eyes of his daughter all of her huntresses. For Hestia, he asked to abdicate her throne on Olympus and to carve out from herself part of her divinity. Apollo and his father were sentenced to the worst punishment possible for a god, mortal-hood.
They were to live as slaves of a king Zeus favoured until they died. It would have ended like this if his mother that had never left the oceans even during the Olympiomachy hadn't acted.
She went alone to Olympus, fearless and had threatened destruction on everything the Olympians held dear. She had by herself challenged all of them and told them that the death of her husband would equal the destruction of Olympus.
Zeus then changed the punishment given to his son and his brother. They had to build a wall for the king of Troy and after it would they be able to regain what was theirs.
His father has been changed by the defeat of the new regime. He began to hate Athena because in his mind, she was the reason they hadn't won. If she hadn't cared about the mortals, they would have won but Athena had as one of her more defining names the protector of men.
Poseidon had said nothing to Triton but he didn't need to for Triton to know that he was angry at him. In Poseidon's mind, if Triton had let sea creatures or gods join or even himself had joined, the new regime would have not been vanquished.
Poseidon saw it as a betrayal when he was the first one to betray. Since then, the relationship between him and his father has been broken. They were too alike. No one of them would ever forget what they saw as a betrayal.
The only inheritance that they all had received from their forefathers was betrayal and hate. They were rotten at their core even if they pretended to the contrary. It's how it was, is and forever will be.
Chapter 5
The previous chapter and this one were supposed to be one but was too exhausted last time to write more. Hope the dialogue isn't weird. Wrote this listening to this song on repeat:
He found his father on a Californian mortal Beach at the surface world. The Lord of the Oceans had switched from a mature god to the form of a young adult just entering their twenties. From his head until his head sprouted luscious curly hair.
The sky over them was dark and moody. The sea that could be seen from where they were were wild and raging showcasing the true feelings of their master Poseidon.
His father had noticed his presence but hadn't said anything. They stayed both of them in silence contemplating the world around them, a world built on suffering and cruelty.
"We made all of this" his father said finally breaking the silence his gaze lost in something that Triton couldn't see.
He continued" We created a world kinder, more beautiful than when we found it and yet in moments like those, I wonder if it shouldn't have been destroyed since the beginning".
The god finally turned his attention toward Triton. His eyes had changed Triton thought. Mortals had a quote saying that the eyes were the windows of the soul and that through them, you could discern somebody's true nature.
They were wrong on most things but not on that. Even when not in their divine, their true forms, the eyes of a divinity could show their true nature. It was the reason why even demigods were shown most of the time something that they could understand be it a colour or a pattern that they could understand or almost understand.
His father had inherited the eyes of his mother that also inherited hers from her mother, the earth itself. The Olympians may have inherited their cruelty and pettiness from their fathers but what made them dangerous was the fact that they were Rhea's children.
He had once asked his mother what did she fell in love with his father and she had answered by the fact that he had beautiful maddening eyes.
Watching his father in the eyes had always been difficult. It had always felt as if a nail was being forced into his brain. Not something debilitating but something unpleasant.
Now, looking at his eyes, it felt worse than before. He felt as if a jackhammer was hitting his skull again and again and again. More than that, he could hear whispers, their words unintelligible but oh so grating.
It reminded him of the past when a young Triton had looked his mother in her eyes and had even though he was a god lost consciousness for six days.
It felt like that but lesser. His father was changing, becoming something else which should have been normally impossible for a god except that this was what was happening.
Triton downed his sight from his father's eyes.
He could feel the elder god's gaze on him as if dissecting him, watching everything that made him to the atom.
The god sighed and turned his gaze away from Triton to watch the horizon." I'm sorry" the king of Atlantis said to his heir.
Triton stayed still like a statue. His father would have normally never done such a thing.
" For what?" Triton asked.
"For allowing the murderer of Pallas to go away when he should have paid for what he did" the sea god spoke.
Thoughts of confusion and hatred bloomed in Triton making him really feel since the end of the first olympiomachy a true emotion.
"Do you know that my father hadn't swallowed me at my birth? It's what the myths say when it's not the truth." Poseidon told his child changing the direction of the conversation.
"What are you talking about?" The conversation had taken a direction Triton didn't expect.
" My mother is before all a goddess of motherhood. It's in her nature to be a mother and mothers be it with humans, simple animals, monsters and even Gods protect their children". Poseidon grabbed a fistful of sand in the right hair and threw It in the air where it began to spin before beginning to take the shape of a woman.
Triton had never met her before but just by seeing her knew who it was. She was a beautiful woman Trifon had to admit. She had the royal and proud face shape of Hera, emanating from her even if it wasn't truly her kindness like Hestia. She also had given to the lord of the dead her eyebrows and to Zeus her hair. The eyes that she had were perfect replicas of those of his father.
His lord father continued" My mother loved us all but she was also the Goddess of the earth and nature and nature, the world itself had never been kind to differences".
"We were born something unfamiliar, new. We were born more than our predecessor's Titans. Kronos after dethroning his father had been prophesied by the daughters of Ananke to be a victim of the same fate" The god laughed "and here we were, newborn divinities already as strong as the most powerful titans".
"Our father saw in his eyes not his children but the cause of his future doom and because of that hated us from the beginning. The wise titan king that was respected, and loved that had ushered a golden age had fallen into the grips of fear and paranoia".
The first figure that Triton knew of Rhea was joined by another with golden eyes.
"The Titans had been strong," his father said" but they were the weakest children of their mother Gaia with Ouranos, the sky. Their father saw them as disappointing things but didn't throw them in Tartarus because he at least wasn't also scared by their powers and strength like with the elder Cyclops or the Hecantoncheires".
Triton continued to listen attentively. After all, his father if not never rarely ever talked of the before of Olympus. What the god was telling him were things most Gods didn't know unless they were high enough in the hierarchy made by Olympus or they were part of those events.
"Gaia loved her children more than anything" the god narrated" She couldn't accept to be with somebody even if she was also their mother that could hurt her children so she left and would found comfort and her tears dried by the upper air itself. They would together make one child".
The sand figurine of Rhea had now exposed from her back tendrils of green light." this child will be called Rhea and her parents made sure that she inherited from each of them almost everything".
"Primordials are to gods what we are to mortals his father said while pointing to foolhardy humans with boards of wood trying to ride the waves produced by the wild ocean.
"How could the titan Triton even with a weapon gifted by their mother be able to reach and hurt The sky itself?" the sea lord asked him.
Mortals going against Gods even minor ones Triton thought always ended by one thing, by the demise or punishment of the mortal. The only way for a mortal to fight a divinity and even have a slight chance to win was either being of divine descent themselves and/or" having the help of a divine being" Triton whispered.
"Bingo," the god said. "The one that helped the Titans at the request of her mother was Rhea. Rhea was the only reason why the Titans hadn't had all their essences dispersed all over the world.
"My father," the Olympian continued "had never been the strongest or the wisest of his siblings. What made him stand off from his brethren was his cunning. He saw the power of my mother and knew that with it, no one would dare to go against him".
"It sounds a lot similar with…" the sea prince stopped his sentence. His father that had appeared calm all this time was gone. The mask had been broken and left bare before the world the hatred and madness of his father.
The god was now standing and tempestuous winds were blowing. The mortals that were riding the wave had lost control and fallen into the raging ocean trying to not drown. His hair behind was blowing in the wind like a demented beast. Triton had forgotten for a moment that the god he was talking to was one renowned for his changing and mercurial moods.
Triton took a step back. The God may have never directly hurt him even after the Olympiomachy but he looked as if he would this time.
Triton readied himself for a possible attack. Poseidon looked as if he wanted to tear him in many pieces but something stopped him. maybe it was his sanity regaining him or for another reason, the God calmed himself and sat back on the sand.
The God continued to talk as if nothing had happened." Kronos when Hestia was to be born knew that he had to trick Rhea into allowing him to end the menace that his children represented to him".
" He made her believe that the children coming from their union were deformed, cursed, suffering and tainted. what kind of mother the titan king told her she would be if she had allowed her children to live a life of immortal agony."
"My mother, " Poseidon said "had learnt to trust and love her husband. After all, he was kind, handsome, brave and he had told her that he loved them. She thought that he would never lie to her".
Pallas had been Triton light since her birth. Triton couldn't understand why others be they gods or mortals could hurt their own children, and not want to care for them.
Texts when talking of the mother of Gods always talked of kindness, of how she loved her children and was torn apart each time she had to give a child to her husband. They talked of her as an innocent, loving, tragic and powerless figure when if anything his father was saying was true, it was all the contrary. She hadn't been the victim. She had been an accomplice.
" So what changed," he asked his father," you told me that you hadn't been swallowed like your siblings before you."
His father pointed his eyes"What changed was that I was born with them".
The elder god continued" I was born with my mother's eyes, unlike my other siblings which meant that I wasn't malformed. I had also inherited from her. Eyes are the window of the soul and mine were just like hers. Admitting that I was deformed would mean that she was too".
The rhea in the sand now had a baby in her arms. She was dotting on him.
"My mother gave to trick my father Kronos a foal that she had infused with divinity. He saw nothing wrong with it". The god's eyes were clouded as if he was relieving the story while he was narrating it.
"Rhea gave me to be raised in secret by a spring nymph. Her name was Arne".
I"What happened to her" Triton questioned.
"She died" The thunder accompanied the words of his father.
"My mother even after all of this still loved my father. She thought that he also didn't know better. She asked him one year after my birth about the proof of his allegations against their children. They had the first dispute of their marriage. In it, Rhea slipped the fact that she hadn't given me to be swallowed. How do you think my father reacted Triton"?
"He got angry" the younger god guessed.
"He probably did" agreed his father "but he didn't show it. He apologized to my mother, and talked about freeing my siblings now that he knew the truth. He played the role of the perfect husband for three months".
"I feel a but coming". Triton said
"Indeed spoke the god. All of that was a ruse, a way to trick my mother and he succeeded. She brought him to the sanctuary where I was raised by Arne. He did nothing on the first and second visits when he was with my mother. The third time, he came alone and broke the promise he made to his mother. He tried to swallow me but Arne tried to act".
Triton didn't need to be told to know how it ended. Kronos was the titan and had as a weapon a scythe made by a primordial that could hurt others' primordial.
"Arne was killed by the scythe of the titan king and I was swallowed really this time by my father. My mother when she learnt what happened left Ortis pregnant with Zeus and you already know the rest of the story Triton" his father finished.
Triton had to admit that It was a captivating tale but "What are you telling me this father".
The older sea god sighed" Imagine eternal torture, a place where a second is as long as a thousand years, where every moment is painful torture because you are being submerged by the acids inside your father's stomach. Such things can make even immortals go mad. Maybe it's the reason for the behaviour of my siblings and me". We're probably all mad.
The eyes of the god had turned into shining emeralds. They were showing him visions of the past, visions of suffering, of happiness, of the future.
" And then came Zeus. He freed us from our torment. We bled all of us together. It was us against the world. When it was hard, we would talk about what we would do when we won. We talked about making sure that the world we will create will be a better one where parents protected their children. We promised to each other that we would always protect each other, that we would always be a family". At the end of his sentence, the voice of the god sounded broken as if he was restraining himself from crying.
Triton imagined the elder Olympians younger dreaming and talking about making a better future, a better world, to always being there for each other. The past them would have probably chosen to fade if they saw their futures selves
"You still didn't tell me the reason why was the point of you telling me all of this Father".
His father sighed" I loved Pallas me too triton. She was my granddaughter."
"Don't you dare tell me this Father" Triton spat with a voice filled with venom. "If you had loved her, you would have pushed for the punishment of Zeus".
"What did you want me to do Triton? Zeus was my brother. I loved him and deep inside even after all of this, I can not bring myself to stop loving him. I already lost my granddaughter at the hands of my own brother when we promised each other that we would be better. He did worse than our father. He swallowed his child and her mother. He succeeded halfway." the kronide sounded tired.
"And look how it bit you back father. Without Mother's intervention, you'd be dead. You're the only one still thinking of family, of the past. Except for Hestia, all of your siblings stopped caring about family. They only crave one thing, power but you already know that".
"Yeah, I know". The god sounded defeated.
"I wished things were different Triton but even with all my power, I can not solve the problems afflicting me".
Clouds Triton noticed had begun to drift away as if called. Triton focused on all of the drips of water in the USA. They were controlled by a divine presence, one that almost felt identical to his father except way weaker and not divine enough.
He turned toward his father. He smiled and radiated Pride.
"Is this the work of your half-blood?"
"That's the work of my boy" the older god answered proudly.
"It should be impossible at his age by a demigod of his caliber unless he's special. He's the child of the great prophecy, isn't he?
His father shrugged" maybe he is, maybe he's not".
The world shook as if a nuclear bomb had been detonated not too far away. " I watched you Percy and you made me proud," his father said to the empty air
The attention of his father went back to him and Steel entered in the voice of his father" "You'll have what you want Triton. In less than ten years, you'll have your vengeance".
His father even though it wasn't well known could see through the waves of time. He even had a name, Poseidon Epoptes, the watcher that was worshipped in the past because of his future sight. Apollo didn't have the monopoly on being able to see the future in their pantheon even if it was what a lot of people thought.
Triton had festered in his hatred for millenniums. He could wait for a mere decade. For once, since the death of his daughter, a true and happy smile bloomed on the face of Triton.
Chapter 6
Sorry for not posting earlier. I finished yesterday but my dad had his 60th birthday and he wanted me to organise it plus the day after it, so today is Father's Day today so I was hanging out with him. Hope y'all like this chapter and happy Father's Day to every father reading this. The song I listened to while writing this chapter:
I woke up in an unknown room, one that I didn't recognise. The room looked like one of an expensive hotel. The sheets I had been lying on felt so divinely soft that it made me want to never leave.
As if electrocuted, I jumped away from the bed. I didn't where I was and as a demigod having lived and survived in the streets, ignorance and surprise meant death.
I began to analyse everything around me. I was alone in what seemed like an expensive hotel bedroom. The ground was made of marble stone that looked composed of black onyx, diamonds, and pearls. The bed I had been lying on was a bed so big that five of my siblings and I could have slept together on it and don't feel uncomfortable. people from Luke's cabin would have killed for one like that.
I turned around checking the room where I found myself. There was also a big TV that looked almost flat like a pc screen turned on but with the sound muted.
The walls around me were painted with depictions of pirates looting, killing, and destroying. The painting almost felt alive. It was as if it was watching me. I turned my attention to something else.
Before me was a big window leading to an outdoor terrace. I opened it and was met with the sight of a city under my view. I was more than 100 feet in the air.
Under me, humans lived their lives carefree, laughing, with intensity as if they mattered, comfortable in their ignorance. They didn't know like me the monsters hiding in the night. They didn't know the dread to live in a world with the divine. They didn't know lost like other demigods and I were afflicted with.
I began thinking. I didn't remember a lot except flashes of a fight, of dark red blur clashing against another one of a blue colour, of an explosion that had turned my world dark and made me think that I had gone straight to the underworld.
I was the daughter of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and I did the furthest thing from wise. I was a demigod. Even if I had trained since my childhood, since I was seven years old, I was still a mortal even helped going against an immortal being older than civilisation. I wonder if Thalia and Luke would be proud of me.
"So you finally woke up" a voice rich and velvety, with an exotic Middle Eastern accent said behind me. I turned immediately facing it, my hand going for my dagger. My hand found nothing and I remembered that I had thrown it in one of the eyes of Alecto. Way to go Annabeth I said to myself.
The owner of the voice that had spoken was I had to admit even if shouldn't be thinking like that in this situation Hot and pretty, so much more than Luke a traitorous part of me admitted.
The voice didn't match the appearance of its owner. The owner of the voice was tall and lithe. From his head sprouted to his back waves so dark they almost seemed purple and they moved in the air as if they were underwater. He had an aquiline nose and He also had a sarcastic, troublemaker smile. He had soft and delicate features that Annabeth had seen in statues of angels in museums. He looked as if Percy was a god, older and looked like a pretty girl.
He wore what looked to be baggy Gothic pants with chains and straps that just being close to them made my skin crawl instinctively as if I was before something dangerous. On his upper body, he wore a long sleeve t-shirt with a cross intertwined in thorns drawn on it. Around his neck was a golden chain with a sword of the same colour dangling from it.
It meant that the stranger before her was most likely a child of Poseidon and she was a child of Athena alone without a weapon, in a place she didn't know.
"Easy little half-blood," the stranger said. "If I wanted to harm you", he continued, "I could have done so by not saving your life, or when you were sleeping or even when you had your back turned".
I still didn't let my guard down. The stranger didn't seem to be angered by my reaction. He looked amused as if he was watching a poodle trying to look menacing.
"If you want, I could leave" the stranger proposed." It's just that you would have to find by yourself the exit of this place and your companions and to be honest, there were mortals that literally died here because they couldn't find the exit, so you do you I guess" The stranger shrugged and turning his back to leave.
I didn't want to depend on a stranger even if they said that they had my best interest at heart. It's how demigods died and I was a Demigoddess of Athena which meant that I should be able to find my way alone but don't forget that Pride is the first step away from wisdom towards failure my brain reminded me.
"Stop! Wait for me!" I screamed to the stranger that was already at the door of the room.
He turned his eyes towards me" Such a shame. It would have been cool for me if you had said no but anyway, orders are orders. "Follow me," he said and left the room.
I ran after him. He had told me that mortals could die by never finding the exit of this place and he most likely wouldn't shed a tear if anything happened to me because of who were our parents.
I walked behind him. I tried to memorise everything around me but it was as if this place was alive. We would take a turn on the right and end on the left or walk a distance of less than five feet in 3 minutes. I shivered. If I had tried to leave by myself, the impossible geography of this place would have made me either go mad or die because I would have been lost in this place without subsistence.
We arrived at what seemed to be a classy restaurant. There were other people except us. There were what seemed to be the staff serving clients. My face examined one of them and I almost took a step back in shock and horror. It was a monster. It had a face like a dog, with a black snout, brown eyes, and pointy ears. It wore a suit but even wearing one, I could see that his body was sleek and black like a seal. He had stubby legs that looked half flipper and half foot and the monster was wearing British shoes that looked made especially for it and human-like hands with sharp claws that didn't stop the monster from serving the clients flawlessly.
I began watching everything around me. He wasn't the only monster I realised, all of the servers here were humans. Some I recognised as cyclops considering their unique eyes and their ugly faces, others looked like mixes of sea creatures with humans. I grabbed a kitchen knife and pressed it into the back of the unknown child of Poseidon.
"Show me for real this time the exit or I'll stab you" I threatened. It seems that it didn't work because he began laughing.
"Are you threatening me daughter of Athena? Are you challenging me?" He had turned towards me even with the menace of a knife on his back.
I tried my best, tried to de-escalate the situation. I plunged my knife towards where I knew was the heart of the Percy look-alike with all the strength I could muster.
I had expected to hear the sound of flesh being ruptured apart by steel but the sound that grated my ear was a metallic one, more precisely, the one of my knife of fortune breaking.
"You're lucky child that my father ordered me to make sure that your companions and you would be safe or I would have killed you. Do something like that again and I'll disregard completely the orders of my father. After all, he only really cares about my brother, so" he lowered himself to the level of my ear" Don't test my patience and mercy again child. Do you understand? He asked me his voice full of unsaid threat and hatred.
"Yes," I replied with a weak voice.
He clapped his hand" Great, it's something that is settled. Don't worry about anyone else here. As long as you are with a child of Poseidon, nothing will happen to you here".
Everyone was looking at us I noticed. They all looked as if they were ready to intervene at any moment. They were all sea creatures and nothing could happen to a child of Poseidon here which meant that the older son of Poseidon wouldn't have to do anything if attacked him. Everybody else here would be the ones I would have to worry about.
They continued to walk until a divinely furnished table. I could see from far away that there were already two people seated. One was being pampered unwillingly it seemed by the staff.
"No, I don't need to use you as my footstool" the voice complained. I knew this voice. It was the voice of percy Jackson, king of the bathroom himself. I could also hear Grover laughing.
"Guys!" I screamed and they turned towards me. Their face lit up as Christmas trees. I ran toward them and did something that I would have never done except with Luke and Thalia, I hugged them. They were alright, they were alive, we were alive.
I gave a weak punch to percy shoulder" Next time, don't go fighting alone against an immortal without a plan idiot"
"That hurt," he said while rubbing his shoulder.
I rolled my eyes" Stop being a crybaby. See it as Another reason for you next time to not go fighting against immortals alone because if you die, I'll summon your soul to hit you again".
"Noted wise girl" he answered.
We decided to sit. Without us even asking anything, plates full of foods of different kinds were brought before us. There were green olives, dishes filled with traditional Greek cuisines like moussaka, tzatziki and baklava. There were also fried eggs that seemed to be seasoned with gold and that looked divinely made.
Our stomachs growled in unison. We hadn't eaten anything since we had left camp and with Alecto's attack, we lost all of the provisions that we had packed(mostly me) for the quest.
Percy was the one to dive first into the food. I waited for 30 seconds to see if he would have an adverse reaction to the food. He didn't. Like a signal, Grover and I dived into the food like starving ogres. The food touched my taste buds and my brain shut down. I had to suppress a moan. I had never eaten something so delicious. I would even dare to say that it was better than Ambrosia itself.
While we were eating, the other child of Poseidon had taken a seat on the opposing boot of us and was watching us. I didn't let him distract him from the godly food I was eating.
glasses of water were placed before us." Never-ending Water blessed by the nymph Thetis" one of the servers said.
I drank it like a thirsty man in the desert until there was no liquid left in it. It didn't taste like water because water could never taste this good. It was as if all the aches that I knew I had or that I didn't know were gone. Maybe it was my mind fooling itself but I felt stronger, I felt more when I put my glass back on the table, it was full again.
It was as if I was in paradise. The only things left for me to make it truly perfect were Luke and Thalia.
A dark part of my mind whispered to me that such a place existed where supernatural beings would be served things that mortals could never replicate and when we were, Thalia, Luke and I children of Olympians, homeless, none of our parents brought us to a place like this or even tried to help. I still remember how even if they tried to hide it, Thalia and Luke gave me everything they were able to find for me to eat leaving them with empty stomachs for most nights. Why did Percy's dad care and not our parents?
Was being loved and happy too much to ask for? If I was in their place, nothing would be like that, I'd change everything, I know that I'll be better, be worthy of ruling this world.
Chapter 7
Wrote this listening to that :
He had been on his boat in the ocean when he had felt approaching his pirate boat another deity. It wasn't as if it was the first time a stronger or a prideful god had tried to battle him. They hated his existence because of his parentage, because, he was the child of one of the strongest and most hated gods of their pantheon and of a minor goddess turned monster. Just because of his parentage, he had been deformed, and imperfect when he was a god. There wasn't a worse humiliation than this. Pegasus, Hephaestus and he were the only ones that could be said that came wrong amongst gods. Well, it had been the case.
Arion had been born stuck as a winged horse, the first one and he had inherited the monstrous traits of their mother. Gods that couldn't break their own curses, gods that couldn't shapeshift. Could such beings really be called gods?
After all, if they had been proper gods and not steins in Poseidon's eyes, he would have cared for them.
He had in youth almost believed all the lies, all of the mockeries. What had made him finally sure of his nature was when he had tried in the past to use the golden sword that he had been born with to end his life and instead of the presence of scarlet blood and the appearance of his soul in the underworld found golden Ichor, the blood of the gods spewing like a fountain from his wrist.
He still remembered the scream pushed out of the throats of his aunts when they saw his state. They had after that became overprotective of him until they found him to be strong and mature enough to venture into the world. He would find later that they chose to fade the day after he had left.
Immortality was the highest thing that somebody could be blessed to be born with. That's what was thought. It was seen as a blessing when in reality, it was a curse masquerading as one. Living forever meant living forever with your mistakes and your guilt. Worse, they could be immortalised by mortals, and become a never-ending reminder of things wished and lost.
When he left the island of his family and ventured into the world, he had been full of innocence and curiosity. Even though he was raised by what a lot would call monsters, those monsters had taught him to be kind.
The thing is how can you be kind when it feels like the world is against you? How can you be kind when your existence is seen as an insult and a defilement of the natural order?
He was born with his brother from the union of Medusa and Poseidon in Athena temple and the war goddess was one to which cruelty came easily. She was after all the daughter of her father. She had sent heroes and monsters against Pegasus and chrysaor.
They said that Pegasus accepted to be the mount of Bellerophon. It was nothing more than a lie. True Consent doesn't equal mind-controlling magical artefact. Chrysaor had waited until Bellerophon was old and not under the attention of Athena and from the sky, he made him fall to his death freeing his brother. No myths recounted that fact. After all, it's not as if the most known ones weren't written by spawns of the war goddess.
He fought dangerous beasts, monsters, and gods saved cities and brought water to places where existed drought. He made exploits worthy of worship but none of that satisfied him, none of that made him content, made him happy.
What had made him happy had been her. She was still in his heart the most beautiful thing in the world, his Callirhoe. He had once thought himself alone at the sea and had removed his mask hiding the features he had inherited from his cursed mother. He had heard a gasp of shock coming from the sea itself.
The one that had seen him was a child of Oceanus. He had expected disgust to well up on her beautiful face. What had instead bloomed on her face had been fascination and innocent curiosity.
"Aren't you scared" he had asked her this day. "Aren't you disgusted?"
"No my lord", she had replied.
They didn't fall in love like in a fairytale where at first sight, the two protagonists proclaim their unadulterated love to each other.
It took time. Chrysaor had never known kindness from somebody coming from outside his family. He was also a child of Poseidon whether he wanted it or not, the one that had usurped the control of all of the oceans over the brother of Kronos that was her father.
Each week, they'd meet at a secret and precise spot and talk about everything they could think of. They had talked of their hopes, of their dreams, of how the stupidity and hatred of immortals and mortals created unneeded suffering. They debated on what made things right or wrong. "Power" had Chrysaor declared to her. Power was the reason the kronides were able to dethrone their father and shape the world as they saw fit.
Power had been the reason why Athena was able to curse others, transform them into monsters, send so-called heroes to slay them and still be called a just and kind goddess. Power had been the reason that defined all his life.
After answering, he had asked her what was for her the root of what made things as they were, that classified them as right and wrong. She had boldly said kindness. She had told him that if the first sky father had been kind, he wouldn't have been usurped from his throne by his children.
The same wouldn't have happened to the Titans if their king had chosen kindness over fear and hate. If the titan king had shown kindness to his progeny, his golden age would have maybe been still continuing to this day.
Here he had been with someone that repeated to him the words of his now-faded aunts. Kindness they had said. Maybe if the world had been kinder, chrysaor would have had a happy family.
He had asked her 5 years after their first meeting to be his wife and she accepted. He had almost gone mad because of the joy he felt. They married on the island of his childhood and lived for decades a blessed filled life.
Alas, it was in the nature of the world to crush hopes, dreams and happiness. Athena had learnt by a way that he didn't know that Callirhoe had married him, had made him the son of ex priestess that she had cursed and planned the death happy.
She went to her grandfather, the titan of the sea that didn't know, Oceanus and informed him of this. Oceanus's ire exploded when he learnt that one of his daughters married a monstrous child of Poseidon. The titan gave a choice to his daughter, being forever cut for the sea or breaking her marriage.
No one even him had expected her to do such folly, such defying act. No one expected her to rupture by herself her link to the sea. She had told Chrysaor that the sea may have been her home, an essential part of her being but it could never compare to him that was her everything.
The both of them left the ocean to live on an island where the inhabitants had been saved by Chrysaor and he was worshipped because of it by them. He made her his queen and in return, she bore him a child they named Geryon, she gave him what he had always longed for, a family of his own.
They ruled for centuries together. They built a kingdom named Erytheia that all of the other city-states wished they could be. They built a haven where no one had to fear being excluded, shunned or killed because of their differences. When they had been tired of the ruling, they gave the kingship to their child Geryon and retired to the secluded mountains of their kingdom to live just the two of them.
Chrysaor wished that it had never stopped. He wished that the fates, cruel daughters of Ananke had been kinder. Callirhoe had been an immortal linked to the oceans. She wasn't like him from the sea but not completely dependent on it. He had been born with a domain unique to himself. his control of bodies of water that He had been born with, that he inherited from his father hadn't been removed as it had been with his wife.
He had watched the one he loved the most in the world suffer because she had removed an essential part of her because of her love for him. He had done everything that could be done to stop her from fading.
He stole golden apples from Hera's garden that could make mortals become immortals. It only gave him more time. He went to his brother Khrysomallos mostly known today as the Golden Fleece to beg him to help with his healing powers before his mind was turned into the ram constellation by Zeus. He was so desperate that he had begged his father and when he didn't answer, begged Athena herself. Nothing worked.
The last resort that he had found was a ritual, more precisely a ritual that turned mortals into gods. To do such, gods would have to permanently give a part of their divine power, of themselves to ascend the chosen mortal. It's what had been done with Asclepius and Apollo.
In his case, he would give up his birthright, and his authority over the seas to his wife to replace what she had lost. She was more important than everything to him. Alas, his sweet Callirhoe discovered what he had planned and chose to end her existence before he could make Himself lower.
He had come back ready to save his wife to find instead an empty home. He had gone mad from grief. He had raged against the world. His emotions and despair created worldwide floods and led hundreds of thousands of mortals to the realm of Hades.
The one that had brought him from the madness had been his father, Poseidon himself. He had become such a threat that only an Olympian had a chance to stop his rampage. He had woken up in Atlantis where his fractured mind would be consolidated.
Poseidon had asked to stay underwater but how could he stay with the one that could have helped him but didn't, that could have made sure that Callirhoe would still be alive. On the first occasion he had, where he was healed enough, he left the home of his father.
He had sworn to himself to never put foot again on the earth as long as he didn't find a way to resurrect Callirhoe. It was probably foolish but a part of him hoped that sailing through the oceans, he could find a way to bring his wife back.
The oceans had at their surface and in their abyss secrets that could even make Gods like Nereus lose their minds. It meant that it probably existed a way to bring her back.
For millenniums, he sailed tirelessly. He fought against deep sea abominations, raided mundane and supernatural boats, and killed or beat everyone be they gods, mortals or monsters that tried to put themselves on his path.
While he had been sailing days ago, something happened. He had felt light, burning light on his face. It's as if his face had been melted. The pain had made his vision go white and made him grind his teeth against each other. It would have probably made other beings go mad or kill them because of shock. For him, it did none of those things. It may have been painful but how could such physical pain compare itself to what he felt since Callirhoe's disappearance? He had wondered if what was happening to him was another way found by Athena to torment him or if an enemy he had made in his quest had found a way to curse him.
When he had come back to his senses and had checked his face to see what could have been done to him, he had been shaken by the reflection of himself in the mirror. Where was once a monster was now an undeniably attractive person that looked like a beautiful female version of his father with softer features.
He had been called the same day later by his twin through the service of the rainbow goddess and had found instead of a winged horse a young attractive looking man with long black wavy hair, ocean blue eyes and wearing a long purple ribbon tied to the waist, white pants leaving his feets bare on the grass where he stood. From his back displayed proudly were wings of the colours of an eagle's - gold, white, brown and rust - which made him look like a divine creature straight from Christian mythology.
Both of them had gone through the same harrowing experience and came out of it changed. The curse that they had inherited at birth from their mother by Athena had been dispelled. What they had wished for since the beginning had been all of sudden given to them. The curse could have only been broken by its original caster, a powerful witch or a stronger god than the original caster. Thinking about Athena breaking the curse made them laugh hysterically.
The day the goddess would repair a prejudice caused by her pride would be the day the gods of the Greek pantheon would begin to act as a functional, caring and happy family, something that would never happen.
It left only two options that were either a powerful witch the Like of Pasiphaë or Circe that never did anything without expecting something in return or having a hidden motive behind the act. Plus, they hated men, so it was most likely not them. The only option left was a god but which one had been the question?
Doing such a thing even for an immortal stronger or equal to Athena would have been difficult. The curse only became stronger with time and they had been cursed for millenniums since the belly of their mother before they came to the world.
They had ended their communication with promises to talk to each other about what they had found one month later. The breaking of the curse had made him happy. It's just that he would have wanted her to be there, to show this joy with her. If he could have switched blessings and luck, he would have instead made sure that she would come back.
He left his mind and went back to the real world. The sea was churning before him. The divinity that was coming was strong and just by its presence changed the pattern of the body of water around Chrysaor.
Chrysaor grabbed the handle of his golden sword. Stronger god or not, he would not back down.
The other god came out of the sea rising from it. His green sea eyes made sure of revealing his identity. Chrysaor left the handle of his sword and let himself lower his guard. The god's presence has been different, had felt like an abyss full of horrors waiting to be unleashed at any moment. It had reminded him of when he had felt the presence of Varuna, a flicker of his attention when he had sailed on the Indian Ocean. His father was in his essence a wild god. He had under his portfolio not only the sea but also most of the primary domains of his siblings that he shared with them. What had made him unrecognisable was that he felt like none of those things.
His father was now feet planted in the sea, standing over it as if it was solid. "May I come on your ship?" his father said.
He stopped himself from automatically denying the request of the older God. Poseidon could be called many ignominious things that would probably pale to what he really was but one of the things that everyone could agree with is that Poseidon had and will never hurt directly his children.
"You can" he replied to the son of Rhea. The god turned into drops of water that flickered green dispersing themselves before reappearing on the boat on the side of Chrysaor before taking the shape of his father. The god could have just walked or breached the distance with a jump but instead had chosen to be theatrical.
He turned his uncursed face towards the god" "What do you want" he asked him.
"Maybe see the result of my work" the older god replied cheekily.
"You're the one that did that? You, Poseidon?" He asked shocked. Why did he act now when since Pegasus and Chrysaor's birth, since all of this time, he could have acted, done something.
" Is that really surprising? You're my child after all" the older gold told him looking at him in the eyes.
"Maybe it is Oh benevolent god because when I called for you in the past of the island where I was born, when my wife, Callirhoe was fading, you didn't answer any of them so sorry for seeing that you, my lord care!" Chrysaor screamed with mockery at the end of his sentence at the other god.
The god sighed and turned his head towards the sea." You're right" the god said. "I could have done something but I didn't and now I'm here before you expecting thanks and praise for something that should have been done".
Chrysaor listened dumbfounded. Poseidon was as if not more prideful than Athena herself and here he was admitting a wrong. He had expected the god to get angry, not to act like that.
"Why weren't you there for Pegasus and me? Why didn't you help Mother before Athena sent Perseus after her? All gods living outside Mother's island knew you knew. Did you ever have a modicum of love for her" Chrysaor questioned his father.
"I did and a big part of me still loves her Chrysaor but sometimes, love and care aren't enough. Oceanus hated me and his deep hatred still run hot for me. He learnt of your mother and me. He could not directly affect me but he could for your mothers. Do you remember who she was the priestess?"He asked.
"Yeah," Chrysaor" answered," of Athena".
"Oceanus is Athena's grandfather. Athena didn't know what was happening between your mother and me. She was also raised by Triton and my wife Amphitrite. She saw it as a personal slight."
Chrysaor had known the parentage of the war goddess but had never thought about how it could have factored in the tragic things that had happened to him and his maternal family.
Poseidon continued" She waited until I wasn't there. I was called in Atlantis by an attack on my territories by Oceanus forces. I easily rooted them out. I should have known that it was a distraction. While I wasn't there, Athena cursed your mother twisting her divinity to create the source of her torment. It affected your brother and you, my children, that were in her stomach."
"Then why didn't you come after," The son asked his father.
"Because of Amphitrite." He said.
"Amphitrite?".
"Yeah, Athena even it pains me to say it isn't dumb. She had made contingencies. She knew that sooner or later, I would know. She couldn't stop that but what she could stop was me helping your mother and she used Amphitrite".
"How does Amphitrite factor in this. You're stronger than her, she's just your queen. You're lying". Chrysaor said.
The older god turned towards him fixing him dead in the eyes" It's not the truth Chrysaor. Amphitrite inherited everything from her parents and grandparents, everything Chrysaor. She's exactly like it" Poseidon said while pointing at the sea.
Chrysaor didn't need him to explain more. He understood. Names had power, names gave attention and attention even for Gods could be dangerous.
"She told Amphitrite that more than having cheated, that I had fallen in love, that your mother worked towards the goal of me leaving Amphitrite. Your mother hadn't been the first one I truly loved. She had been the second. The first one that I loved that even adjectives like romantics wouldn't be enough was Scylla."
"Scylla, the giant sea abomination? You had a bad taste." Chrysaor answered shocked.
"She wasn't always like that. She had been fierce, more Beautiful than the stars and strong even amongst god. Unfortunately, she wasn't strong enough. Amphitrite would have sent her back to the nothing if I hadn't begged for her life. Amphitrite had instead turned her into the monster she is known today so when she learned about your mother, I had to prove to her that I didn't care. I left Medusa to her fate because know Chrysaor that it exists worse things than death in this cruel world" the older god told him."
"I thought that with your strength, nothing could stop you from doing what you wished" Chrysaor spoke.
"We're gods to mortals, supernova they could only envy the splendour and shine but there's always someone stronger. This world is one founded on Power".
It was ironic Chrysaor thought. He had hated his father, he had thought he hadn't cared when he did. Poseidon was like him. He had been someone that had lost what he had held dear because he wasn't powerful enough. He had lost two Callirhoe and was stuck for all eternity with the one that took them from him. They stayed in silence listening to the sound of the waves.
"You weren't the only one that I helped. I had been in New York two days ago and met your mother."
"You truly helped? What about Amphitrite?"
"I don't care anymore about the consequences. What I did was probably foolish but it was something I was proud of doing" Poseidon said." For once, I want to live without regrets.
" without regrets? Yeah, it sounds good" Chrysaor said wistfully.
"Did you hear about the stealing of my brother's glow sticks of doom? Poseidon asked Chrysaor.
"Yeah, through the winds and the waves.
Apparently, you're the one that did it through a new demigod you sired. Did you?"
"I didn't but I think that maybe I should have. At least this way, I'd be accused of something that I actually did" the kronide replied." "Zeus wants it back before the solstice or it'll be war."
"Are you scared, wary of this future clash? Do you think you could lose?"
"Lose?" The god laughed as if he heard the funniest joke. "I wouldn't lose. I would crush them Chrysaor and I'm in case of war, I want you on my side". The voice of the god had become wild. It reverberated as if echoing.
"Even though I hate your family as much as you do, I promise myself to never go back on land except it was with Callirhoe. " Chrysaor shook his head. "I can't".
"Then, what if I could give her back to you. I know how to bring immortals from the beyond". Chrysaor turned his head so fast towards his father that it would give whiplash to mortals if they had seen it.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's do it now!" Chrysaor exclaimed.
"I would like to but I need all my names reunited in the same place and a place where I wouldn't be disturbed but with the war coming, I can't allow myself to not multitask but if you helped me, if you helped your brother Percy that is supposed to go on a quest soon for the lightning bolt to give it back to its master stopping the threat of a war, I'll bring her back."
Chrysaor began to think. He could see Callirhoe if he accepted the proposal of the god but how could he be sure that the God wasn't only using him while he needed him and that he will discard him after?
"Swear on the Styx Father and I'll help, swear and I will know that I can trust you," Chrysaor said to his father.
"Alright," the kronide said. " I Poseidon, lord of the oceans, of Atlantis, son of Kronos and Rhea swear before the heavens, the earth and the Styx that if Chrysaor helps me, I will bring back the naiad named Callirhoe." Lightning tore the sky. Tremors began to make themselves known as if an undersea volcano had erupted. More than that, Chrysaor could feel himself being watched as a prey before a predator stalking its prey.
"What was that," Chrysaor asked while holding his hand over his heart".
"That my son was the correct way to bind any Greek being to its promises. The Styx wait for mortals having broken their promises in the underworld to push retribution and punishment. Except for my brother and some of his cronies, few immortals live in the underworld but we all whether we want it or not descendants of the sky and the earth and blood got power Chrysaor."
"What do you want me to do father?
"Soon, your brother will go on a quest and be confronted by a servant of Hades. It will happen soon at the exit of the Lincoln Tunnel. " His father said his eyes peering into things Chrysaor couldn't.
"There's just a little problem, Father, I don't got any ideas of where it is. You forgot where I lived all this time".
The older god put his hands over his eyes "How could I have been so stupid?" The god of the oceans opened his palm. In it, a green ball of energy materialised before flying into chrysaor.
Chrysaor had not expected nothing to happen." What was This for?"
"Tell me Chrysaor", his father told him. "Where is New York?"
"New York is a state on the northeast side of the United States and is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to its south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to its east; it shares a maritime border with Rhode Island and an international border with the Canadian provinces of Quebec to its north and Ontario to its northwest," Chrysaor said automatically without thinking before realising.
"I put all the maps of the United States in your mind. It would be impossible for you to not know now geographically where you are as long you are in the US. You're the first God gps." Poseidon said proudly.
" I won't even ask old man. I'll help on the little quest of your new child and after that, you'll bring back Callirhoe" Chrysaor said. "Deal?" He asked his father
"It's a Deal" his father answered with a nod of the head." You also got in the map in your mind all the locations of the things that I own or that I don't own that I think could help you. Goodbye Chrysaor, I count on you". A wave swept on the deck of the ship where they were. When the water receded, Poseidon was gone.
Chapter 8
This chapter is the first part of a chapter I divided in two. It's been a while since I updated this story so I cut the chapter in two. Thanks again to my beta Cam Katarn. Wrote this listening to this:
He found the child at exactly the place that was indicated by his father. The demigod was painfully young even amongst mortals. He had watched the transportation used by his brother and his companions be destroyed by the use of his inherited abilities.
He could have intervened at any moment but he didn't. The only task given to him was making sure that the godlings succeeded in the retrieval of the symbol of the sky god. Nothing more or less. Chrysaor wanted to see what was special about the child born from a broken oath. He wanted to see what was so special about the child that his father would try to intervene in such a direct way: there is little indirect about assigning a god as a bodyguard.
Poseidon had never sent personally gods or sea creatures to look after his half-bloods on a quest. Before this child, Poseidon had never apologized to anyone. What made this child so different?
He could see a satyr fleeing from the wreck created by his brother with the younger son of Poseidon and another female godling on his shoulders.
Was that all? Was he completely normal? The demigods weren't the only ones unaffected by the destruction of the vehicle. Alecto, one of the kindly ones came out of it angry but untouched. She smelled the air and from there she found the running questers.
Chrysaor prepared himself to intervene. Before he could, he was stopped by his half-brother going toward the Kindly one. He unsheathed his sword but stayed still. What the demigod was doing was foolish, it was the arrogance that could only come from a divine being, it was hubris.
He watched his brother attack the fury. He watched his brother, a half-blood that didn't see more than 13 years hold his own against an immortal. He watched the destruction being brought each time the fury and the child clashed. Respect began to bloom inside his heart.
The child fought with the strength of despair, of somebody giving everything to survive. He watched the half-blood make her bleed. He watched frenzy grew more and more in the actions of the fury. He saw the satyr and the female demigod help his brother.
He saw Alecto have enough, being so incensed that the servant of Hades tried to reveal her divine form to end the demigod son of Poseidon.
Chrysaor tried to intervene but was he outpaced by his brother who brought down upon the Fury an attack so strong and violent that it could be thought to have come from a god itself.
Chrysaor acted. In a burst of speed, he appeared before his brother and grabbed him. With another step, he appeared before the other questers. He encased them in a shield of golden water. The shockwave and the impact from the attack destroyed everything. It destroyed the ground under their feet and sent them flying in the air.
They fell on the Earth hard. The attack had been as if Zeus himself had sent a lightning bolt. Even from where they were sent flying, Chrysaor could still feel the tremors caused by it. He checked mentally where they were and found that his little brother had sent them flying to a state called Virginia.
He stood. He may have protected the half-bloods but they had still fallen unconscious. Maybe, it happened because they were exhausted due to their confrontation with Alecto or maybe it was because of the shockwave created by his brother's attack.
They were in the state of Virginia that was a state completely owned by Chrysaor's father. It was in the delimitation of the United States given to his father. Checking the mental map bestowed by his father, he found that his father had created a place that Chrysaor judged protected enough.
The attack of his half-blood brother hadn't unfortunately crippled the Kindly one which meant that soon if that was not already the case, she would be coming after them.
His brother had also breached the domain of Zeus when he made the giant trident and the Sky God would see it as an insult which meant more dangers coming their way.
He focused on the emplacement of the protected place that was registered as the Hotel Poseidonum which he automatically mentally translated as the temple of Poseidon.
With a flex of his will, the unconscious questers and he disappeared only to reappear before the hotel. Before the giant doors of the hotel, there were guards clad in adamantine scales.
The only gesture they showed to express their surprise at his appearance was tightening their grips on their tridents. They took one look at him and each bent one of their knees, their faces turned towards the ground.
One of them raised his head to speak "It is an honor to welcome you, my Prince."
"You can raise," Chrysaor told them.
They didn't. "It would be a sin for us to do so my prince" said the one guard that seemed to speak for all the others.
His father had trained them well. It reminded him of better times when he was in his own right a god-king.
He pointed toward the unconscious questers." Those are the demigods sent on the quest to retrieve the bolt of the sky god".
"We heard about it" another guard said. "Our lord had his name besmirched by his brother who has also almost killed his latest half-blood," said the guard with venom in his voice. Chrysaor knew without a doubt that even if he knew he shouldn't the guard would not hesitate to go against Zeus. The guard saw his loyalty to Poseidon as superior to his life.
He continued" The god of the sky threatened war with the sea. He swore to destroy us for something our lord did not do. He swore to destroy everything our lord ever loved".
"Well, one of the questers behind me is my brother and by the orders of my father, I will have to protect him. He fought valiantly against an immortal and won. I want them to be taken care of as ifthey were gods. Understood?"
"Understood my prince" the guard answered. As if all this time they were being listened to, humanoid sea creatures came out of the doors of the hotel.
They took the quester with inhuman care and grace into their arms and went back to the hotel with them. Some came out with what seemed to be a palanquin. They came before him. He shook his head in a silent no and walked into the hotel.
The inside of the hotel could only be described as luxurious. The ground had been made with imperial gold intertwined with emeralds finely crafted in it. There were tapestries all around him depicting the sea god, his family and their achievements.
He could see Theseus and the Minotaur. He could see Arion and Pegasus. He could see Triton plunging his trident into a gigantic sea monster. He could see a young-looking goddess that seemed to be creating a storm. He saw himself, draped in gold sitting on a throne.
One of the servants directed him toward what they said would be his quarters for the time he will be staying. While they were walking, he began to pay spiritual attention to the place.
Just being in the hotel had already strengthened him. He could feel strength coursing through him. It was as if he was at the sea. He understood why the map his father had given him had called this place a temple. Attacking a sea creature here would be akin to trying to breach the walls of Troy without subterfuge, something that was impossible for most beings.
More than that, in case an intruder was able to enter this place, they would be unable to trace back their steps. This place after analyzing it was less a physical place and more of a distorted reality that could almost be called alive like the labyrinth. The only way to navigate this place would be to be from the sea and to know or understand the mechanism behind how this place worked.
They finally stopped at a door with the letter Epsilon engraved on it. They entered the room behind the door." There are invisible naiads everywhere my prince. Ask for anything and it will be given to you", the servant said with deference.
"Understood. Inform me immediately when one of the questers awakens. Except that, I expect to not be bothered".
"It is understood your grace." The servant answered. He bowed and left Chrysaor alone in the room.
The room was one that could only be called fit for a god. It was gorgeous to the point that it could be considered sinful but Chrysaor didn't care about any of that.
He let his back fall on the bed. It felt soothing and gave the impression to be enveloped by the sea. Chrysaor raised his hand toward the ceiling as if reaching to catch something" Soon, we'll be together again, Callirhoe . Just wait for me. I will do anything to make sure of it".
scene*
He was watching through a mechanical device surely created by Hephaestus a play that was centred around the plight of a young woman being in love with the half-brother of her husband that was also a criminal.
"Javier" the girl said." We can't. What if manolo finds out?"
"My brother would have to accept our true love Veronica" Javier answered. "Kiss me mi amor"
She kissed him. While they were kissing, a door was opened" Honey, I came out with a gift for yo-".
They jumped away from each other but it was too late. The bags in the hands of the husband of Veronica fell." How could you do this me Veronica? Worse, with my own brother!" Manolo screamed.
"Don't you dare scream at her!" Javier raised his voice and put himself between Veronica and Manolo.
Manolo took out a gun." You betrayed me. Veronica and you, my brother betrayed me. Even after all I did for the both of you. You were supposed to always protect me, Javier. Not be the one that stabs me in the back".
Javier put his hands before him as if wanting to calm his brother" Put down the gun brother before you do something that you will regret. We can talk about it". Veronica nodded behind him.
"I'm done talking," said Manolo with tears in his eyes. He pointed the gun at the two cheaters.
Unfortunately, it was at this moment that the hotel attendant chose to open his door and interrupt the play."At least one of them better be awake or I swear that I will personally turn you into fish soup".
They left his room and walked to what seemed to be a mix of a tavern and a thermopolium. At one of the tables was sitting his brother and his satyr companion.
The eyes of the two had widened by seeing Chrysaor coming. After all, it would be impossible to deny the fact that the young half-blood and he were related due to their appearances.
He sat before the two questers." Hi brother" he said.
"Hi", the other one answered softly.
"I saw what you did with The Fury. Congratulations and be proud. Even amongst gods, few could say to have faced a fury and more than surviving her, hurting her".
"I should be proud but I can't. I was terrified. Every moment felt as if I couldn't breathe. Every moment was one I could have died. If she had taken me seriously, I would have died at the beginning," the demigod said softly. The satyr at his side put a hand on his shoulder as if to soothe him.
Chrysaor remembered a weak and young god talking with his aunts. They had told him that they were proud of the young god. The young god had asked them why. He was weak, imperfect, and had tried to end himself. He was all the contrary to what a god was expected to be. They had smiled at him like one does with an ignorant child and they had answered by saying that he had tried to end himself for what he thought would be the best for the world. Even though it was misguided, the godly child had gone against his own instincts, against his own fear to do what he thought was the best thing. He had done it because he was kind and being kind meant being brave.
"Do you want to know something child? "He spoke to his brother. "Fear is even felt by gods. We, near-omnipotent beings can feel it as much as mortals do. We humans, monsters, and gods, can all be cowards. What makes someone great is looking into the abyss and when it tries to engulf you refusing it with all your strength. Any moment, especially for mortals, is one where they brush against Thanatos's grip. They can die at any moment. They know it but still carry on and that action is courage, something everyone should be proud of, so be proud. It doesn't matter that she wasn't taking you seriously. In the end, you were successful in surviving and that's the only thing that matters."
"You make it seem more grandiose than it is" the child answered.
"Maybe you are right but what is life without embellishments? What is life without pride?"
"An honest life" his younger brother answered.
"Honesty is determined by the strong. It is an immaterial construct prone to change" he said to the demigod
"If it's the case, then pride is too" was the reply given to him.
Chrysaor's face was resting on his hand" So is fear or shame. None of those things matters."
"Then what was the point of every you said," the kid said with frustration.
"Nothing matters" Chrysaor continued as of he hadn't heard his brother" So everything does. That's the paradox child and it's in this complexity that exists beauty."
"How old are you brother?" he asked.
"I am twelve years old. "
"I thought many things of you before meeting you. I thought that you would be an arrogant child that would make me want to strangle them but you're not. My name is Chrysaor The Golden dear brother and I was sent by father to make sure you succeed. What is your name?"
"I'm Percy Jackson".
"Glad to meet you Percy. I just wished that I would meet you in another circumstance. Children shouldn't have to bear the weight of the world".
"I'm not a child and I can. I have to! If I didn't do it, there's assuredly going to be war"
"When you're older, wiser, I hope that the both of us will still be on this earth. At this moment, we'll talk again of the same thing and we'll see if you think the same."
The gaze of the satyr had turned sad. "Be angry for him. Be sad because of his lost innocence but don't you dare pity him. You are his friend, right? He asked.
"Yeah," the satyr answered.
"Continue to be there for him like you've been all this time. Loyalty runs in our veins. As long as you are, know that he would even destroy the world for you". The two questers had begun to blush.
" My Prince," one of the servants said. The two children of Poseidon turned toward the sea creature.
The telekhines realized his error." My Prince Chrysaor. The companion of the youngest prince had awakened. How should we proceed? She's a daughter of the war goddess and their kind is always hostile."
"Is she truly a daughter of Athena?" He asked the questers.
They answered with a nod" Why are you asking?"Percy questioned.
He stood up from his seat and chuckled" Let's just say that children of Poseidon almost always go through tragedies because of the goddess."
He turned toward the telekhine." I'll be going retrieve her myself". The sea monster bowed and left the table.
"What did Annabeth's mom do to you?". His younger brother asked.
"Me? She had cursed my maternal family and sent someone to assassinate my mother by beheading her. Her beheaded head is even to this day one of the symbols of the goddess."
"Athena, beheading, Chrysaor" The satyr whispered. His eyes widened" You are the child of Medusa, brother of Pegasus".
"Bingo" Chrysaor turned his back now facing them. He began to walk toward where he knew was the daughter of Athena.
"Chrysaor" Percy screamed. He stopped his next step. "You called me brother. If you truly meant it, please don't hurt her".
"What you are asking me is cruel brother".
"I know this and I'm sorry but she's my friend. We're not our parents. Please" the demigod begged. "You told me that being kind meant being strong and just by talking with you, I know you to be full of it. Please, don't hurt her". The demigod seemed on the verge of crying.
All the other guests even though they tried to act as if they were not eavesdropping failed at it.
With a flex of his will, a hand made of water ruffled the demigod's hair." I won't hurt her. I promise you this brother."
He continued toward the chamber of the daughter of Athena." Thanks", he heard behind him.
Chapter 9
Thanks again to Cam Katarn for helping me with the grammar. Hope you all like it. Wrote this listening to this:
Chrysaor waited for the demigods to finish eating. They had eaten in a ravenous way as if they were starving. He should be so hard on them though. After all, they had faced an immortal that was older than chrysaor himself and his father and more than surviving were able to fight back. Alecto would not forget. She will be hellbent on making the demigods suffer in the living world and in the underworld if they died.
Well, it would only suck for his brother's companion because he would swear on his blade that their father had a plan in mind for assuring the well-being of his youngest demigod. With the child so strong and him, an immortal, being sent to protect him, it was clear that the Kronide cared.
He was shaken out of his thoughts by clicks of utensils entering in contact with plates. The questers had finished eating their meals.
"I've never eaten something so good before," the Satyr said.
The two demigods nodded in confirmation of what he had said." For once, I can not deny your words," the female demigod answered the satyr.
His brother turned his head away from his companions to face him." You told us that you would come with us Chrysaor. Do you have a plan?"
"I thin-" He didn't have time to answer. The daughter of Athena interrupted him." Chrysaor as the son of Medusa and Poseidon Chrysaor? Percy, we can not trust him".
"What do you say that Annabeth" Percy said to the blonde girl.
"His mom was rightfully turned into a monster by mom because she desecrated my mom's temple with Poseidon. He told me that he had orders not to attack me but it doesn't mean that he can't find a way to do so. Percy, think a little. He hates my mother, so hate me by extension and you are the child of his father with another woman than his mother. How do we know if anything he said was true? Do you truly think that he got your best interest at heart?"
The younger son of Poseidon seemed to be lost in his mind. He seemed conflicted before taking a resolute expression. Chrysaor scoffed. He knew already what his half-brother would say. He knew Chrysaor for no more than a day when he could be knowing the other demigod for years. He had even chosen her to be his companion on a great quest. It couldn't be helped. It didn't affect him yet his heart twisted.
He was surprised by the answer of his brother" You are right that he may be lying but I talked with him before you wake up. We didn't talk long but I was able to glean something from him. He is someone that cares. He was the first adult mortal or immortal that saw me as a kid and not a demigod that should be used as a tool. He is the one that told me that he wished that he met me in a circumstance other than this quest." The youngest child of Poseidon looked at the daughter of the war goddess in the face" It may be stupid but I trust Chrysaor, I trust my brother".
The daughter of Athena seemed to be too enraged to speak. She took a deep breath and with a cold voice said" When it will explode into our faces when we will fail this quest, before our doom, I'll look you in the eyes and will tell you I told you so".
"It won't happen" his brother answered. The daughter of Athena was right. The kid was too trusting. Such naivety was the cause of the fall of many heroes. Trusting in the unforgivable and cruel world led to their death most of the time. It was a weakness and yet it made Chrysaor feel good. It made him feel warm.
"We'll see" the female demigod replied.
The air was now thick with tension" Guys, let's not dispute between ourselves. We were able to survive the Fury because we stuck and worked together."
"For the record" Chrysaor finally spoke." I could have killed the three of you at any moment. I was the one to save you from the consequences of the destructive attack of my brother.
"Rightfully turned into a monster, you said daughter of Athena." The demigods and the satyr turned toward him. " Do you know what is like to have the fundamental part of yourself intruded upon? Do you know what it's like this part of yourself twisted against your own will? It is something that marks you forever. You feel dirty and violated. More than that, you are now seen as undesirable, as something shameful. Everyone that ever told you that they were your family left you alone to your sort. You are barred from your home. When you make a new one, people are sent after you to kill you because now you are no longer divine, you are now a monster. You're not beautiful anymore. You are now the monstrosity that everyone talks and laughs about. You defend yourself each day and night against people sent against you until you can't do so anymore and you are beheaded, your head used as both a trophy and a weapon. All of that happened to my mother because of one person and that person is your mother, daughter of Athena. How is that just? How is that wise? How is that fair? My mother wasn't perfect but no one deserved that, no one so never ever dare again talk before me of what is right!"
Chryaor didn't know what expression he had on his face but the daughter of Athena looked as if Tartarus himself was on the verge of erasing her existence.
"Am I clear?" he asked her.
"Yes," She whispered.
"Good". Chrysaor clapped his hands. "It is something done I think. Are you sure that you don't want to say something else?" He asked the blonde demigod in a mocking tone.
"Chrysaor, stop, please". Said his little brother in a sad tone. All the satisfaction that he had gained disappeared. How could just words affect him this way?
He sighed "All right".
"As I wanted to say before, I do not have a plan. I can not formulate one without every element you have. I suppose if it didn't change a lot, one of you went to the oracle. What did she say?" Chrysaor asked.
"She said that we shall go west, find the god that had turned and return what was stolen".
"West, you said," Chrysaor thought out loud.
"Who do you think it could be"
"We thought that it was the God of the deads. Chiron confirmed it and it was also him that Sent a Kindly one many times after Percy." The satyr said.
" Checking the map given to me, California could be considered the most west state from the United States if Hawaii and Alaska are not considered".
"Chiron had also told us that the entry to the underworld was in Los Angeles. It all matches" the daughter of Athena spoke.
"It doesn't seem like the way the King of the Underworld acts but it's been more than a millennium since I saw him so maybe, he changed. It is important to note that prophecies work the way we interpret them.
"What does it mean? Aren't prophecies static?" his younger brother asked him.
"The thing about Prophecies," he told him" is that our interpretation of them is what shapes them. Let's take for example the story of the titan king. The titan king was told that he would be dethroned by his children so when his wife gave birth, he tried to consume the essence of his children until they were nothing.
We all know how it ended."
"The prophecy was realized," Annabeth said. The first king lost his throne, was cut into many pieces and thrown into Tartarus. How could it have been different?" The distrust of the goddess had disappeared at the moment new knowledge was put before her.
"It could have happened that way" Chrysaor answered." The Titan king could have even with the prophecy chosen to raise his children with love. Maybe in that hypothetical world, he would be dethroned not through a bloody conflict but by him abdicating his crown to his children. He would still be whole, worshipped. He would have been forever known as a symbol of wisdom, as the great father. It's the same here. The thing is that Hades isn't the only one with a motive. After all, he hates everyone especially those he thought had stolen the symbol of the power of his brother and those resulting from a broken oath on a divine river of his domain."
"So who else do you think it could be?"
"I'm not sure but it could be a Hawaiian deity. They are amongst the rare native divinity to America that have survived if what I've heard isn't wrong" Chrysaor said while rubbing his jaw.
"Hawaiian gods?" the daughter of Athena screamed. "They exist? I thought that the Greek gods were the only real gods".
Chrysaor turned his gaze towards the other questers that looked as shocked as the blonde demigod." None of you knew". Chrysaor said with surprise. He could understand half-bloods beings ignorant of some things. Their lives were finite and could end at any moment. It's something they should be knowing because even though they didn't know about the greater world, the greater world knew of their nature and no one was more hated than the Greco-roman pantheon.
Gods or supernatural beings that had their culture destroyed, forgotten, that lost their friends, followers and families wouldn't care about the fact that the Olympic demigod they could meet was innocent. They would only see an offspring of the creator of their misfortune. They would without hesitation make the half-blood they meet suffer.
He was just supposed to assure the success of the quest but he realized that to do so, he would have to teach the demigods. Not everything he thought. Some things were better to never be learnt, known especially by mortals.
He moved himself to be more comfortable." Alright" he spoke," Time for a little lesson".
The demigods were watching him the way, predators did with their prey."To begin, you all have to understand that if a myth exists, it is probably based most of the time on true facts."
"You said that most myths are real. Does it mean that the Olympians aren't the supreme ruler of the world? Why didn't we know that? Before you even told us, we should have known. I'm sure that for example, Native American divinities wouldn't be happy with the occupation of the United States". The daughter of Athena questioned.
"The Olympians are many things child. They all are cruel, petty and monstrous but there is one thing they are not and that is weak. They are the Western civilization itself. Everything that happened because of it in this world. Every atrocity and wonders. Every slaughter, every genocide is their fault directly or indirectly. With their actions, they would have been eradicated if they were not strong enough. There is a tale that says that when Olympus began to plunder the African continent thousands of gods from different tribes that hated each other chose to forget their grievances to destroy their invaders. Gods that could with a movement of their arms, destroy mountains, tear the sky apart, and break the natural rules of the world were annihilated, erased as if they never existed. Only one god was the cause of their demise. Can you guess who?"
"An Olympian god strong enough to be able to slaughter thousands of gods. It must be one of the kronides" the daughter of Athena thought out loud." Was it the sky god? He's known as the strongest of the Olympian gods. You said sent by Olympus so it can't be a primordial god."
"It was not the king who did it. It was his eldest sister. The oldest child of the titan king it is said burnt everything. She burnt the attacks launched at her. She burnt the army of lesser supernatural beings united by the alliance of gods. She with one movement burnt the enemy gods' flesh, bone and essence. They didn't have enough time to scream. When she chose to extinguish her flames, there was nothing left. She burnt away their very existence. They would never be able to come back even if Khaos himself intervened."
"You are talking of Hestia," the Satyr said shell shocked." Hestia, the kindest god, Hestia the one god that is notoriously known as a pacifist who hates violence. You're joking right". The satyr looked at him in the eyes as if trying to find any deceit. He found none of it.
"It is not the only atrocities made by the Olympians. It's just a drop of water in an ocean of cruelties and horrors. What gods or supernatural beings that survive to this day were the ones smart or cowardly enough to not go against Olympus but you" he said pointing at each of the questers with his index finger" are not even half as strong as the Olympians except maybe you, little brother. "
The demigod looked conflicted and pained. It was easy for Chrysaor to see that his brother wanted to ask him a question and he had an idea of what it was.
"Chrysaor. You said that the Olympians were the root of an innumerable amount of atrocities but Dad, he was not really involved right?". The demigod sounded hopeful. The demigod wanted to still see his father as a near-perfect figure. He wanted to see him as someone that changed since ancient Greece. He wanted to believe that his father, the one that loved him was not one of the biggest monsters existing.
Chrysaor sighed. He answered with a soft voice as if trying to alleviate the coming blow." Brother, know that no ship crosses an ocean without our father accepting it. Do you know what helped, no build this country?"
"Slaves and their labour" the satyr answered instead of his brother. He sent the nature spirit a scathing look. At that moment, he deplored the fact that he hadn't inherited the turn-to-stone gaze of his mother.
He opened his mouth trying to save the situation. His father was not perfect and Chrysaor was still not sure of what was the reasons for the changes in his father but he was a parent too and knew that there was nothing more soul-crushing than having the love and admiration of your child turn into hatred."Listen to me, Percy, it was in the past. Percy!"
The child was breathing easily as if he had run a marathon." Calm down. Calm down Percy". He stood up from his place and went near the child" Focus on me, it's alright". He tried to put his hand on the shoulder of his brother to comfort him but had his hand swatted away.
The companions of the demigod were trying to calm him down at the same time as Chrysaor. "I just want to be left alone" the demigod screamed. With his cry, the hotel space itself twisted. The child wasn't there anymore. He had in his panic unconsciously connected to the temple masquerading as a hotel as if he was a godly offspring of Poseidon. Chrysaor focused on trying to find his brother. He found him on the roof.
"My Prince, should we send people searching for the young prince," a Telekhine asked him.
"No, I'll do it myself".
He prepared to teleport near his brother." Take us with you. We can help" the satyr said.
"You are his friend. You saw how he reacted when we crowded him. In trying to help, we didn't. Now, he is alone after an outburst when he said he wanted to be alone. Do you think that it would be a good idea for us three to go toward him? He asked the Satyr.
"No, it wouldn't," the satyr said looking at the ground." I know that it wouldn't be a good idea but I'm supposed to be his best friend, be there for him but I feel like I failed time and time again. He was attacked by a Kindly one and I did nothing. He lost his mother because of me. When he thought I was a crippled human, he did everything to protect me when most humans pitied me or attack me" The daughter of the war goddess hugged him.
"The thing about life is that things are never truly over. Never think that you failed as long as both of you are alive. You care about your friend. It's something that is authentic that I can see. When I come back with him, don't think about the things that happened that you can't change. Think about what you will be able to do for him. Be there for him. That's all you gotta do." Chrysaor said before reappearing on the roof of the hotel.
He found his brother sitting on the ground, his back resting against a wall watching the stars and grabbing tightly the collar of pearls around his neck.
They stayed both of them in silence for five minutes before his brother finally spoke "I wanted to be alone".
"I know" Chrysaor answered.
"I never told it to anyone except you but I talked to Dad", His brother began. "He was everything I hoped he would be. He seemed caring and told me he loved me. He had told me that there would be a quest for the retrieval of the lightning bolt and that I didn't have to go through it if I didn't want it. He wanted me to come to Atlantis with him. He didn't care that doing such would probably mean that he would still be seen as the reason for the disappearance of the bolt. It meant that he saw my being safe as more important to him than a conflict where he could lose everything."
"You fear that he lied to you," he said to his brother." You fear that he's just using you and will discard you after your usefulness runs out. You fear that everything you're doing is for nothing. You fear being abandoned."
"Yeah. What you told me was completely different from the dad I met but if after a millennium, he didn't change, how could he realistically change in just a few decades?"
"Our father is not a good person. I'm not a good person Percy. Most gods aren't." The demigod looked defeated. "But" he continued."There is one thing you can be sure of and that's his love for you. It has never happened before that a Greek god sent another divinity to protect their demigod for the entirety of a quest. He wouldn't have done that, and let you inherit so much from him, if he didn't care."
"Inherit?" the demigod asked.
"The strength of a demigod depends on the love, the care that their parents have for them. There were children of Poseidon unable to control the weather or liquids like you, brother. Even if he allowed those to do so, they would never be able to do the things you did. I can feel his power all over you and In you. It screams proudly and unashamed this is my child."
His brother turned toward him"I should be disgusted by him after what you told me but I still love him. Does it make me evil?"
"Maybe it makes you evil but guess what? In the end, the only person's opinion that matters is yours. Don't forget what he did but don't try to force yourself to stop loving him."
The child smiled at him"I see. Thanks, Chrysaor. It's just been a day but I'm glad I met you".
A little smile appeared on the corner on the mouth of Chrysaor" Me too, I'm glad to have met you, brother. He just hoped that in the future, none of them would regret their words.
Chapter 10
Hi, hope you all are alright. I am unfortunately busy IRL so I wasn't able to write as much as I wanted. My beta for now hasn't corrected the chapter so sorry if there is for a while grammatical errors. Wrote this listening to this:
He was both in Olympus and not in it. Sometimes, he wanted to escape the world. He wanted to forget the world under him, the world of immortals and mortals he was supposed to rule. To be able to do such, he created with a lot of time and patience a realm that could truly be called his.
One no one except a trusted servant of him knew. A realm where he would be able to be Zeus and just Zeus. Here, he wasn't the king of the Olympians. Here he wasn't the hated one. Here he was free. The realm he had created was one of an endless sky made with silver clouds.
He had taken his original form, the one he had when he freed his siblings, the one that was truly him and not what most mortals of immortals saw him as. This was the form where he felt at his strongest and at the same time at his weakest. Vulnerable was the word used by the mortals. Yes… he felt vulnerable yet free.
If anyone saw him, they would have been surprised. He usually took the shape of a mature man. Mortals and immortals were both stupid. They saw someone older and unconsciously treated this person with deference and Zeus had learned this.
He gazed at the endless horizon and sighed. Sometimes, he wondered what was the point of everything. What was the point of existence itself? What was the point of Olympus?
Sometimes he wished that they had lost the Titanomachy against their forefathers. Their essences would have been dispersed, mortals would have most likely not be living like they were right now. They would have probably been eradicated for good or used as tortured playthings for the titan or maybe things would have been better.
He knew at least one thing, he would have died proud his head held high with his siblings. If they had died, he knew that at that moment at least, they would have died loving him.
He was born the youngest of them, the hidden child of Rhea and Kronos. Since his birth, he had been taught what was his duty. He was to be the next king. He was to be the one to free his siblings. He was the one supposed to make things better. No one had ever asked him what he wanted to do. It had always been what he should be doing and not what he wanted to do.
In the mountain where he was raised with the nymphs, he had lived some of the best moments of his life. He remembered the tales, he remembered the song, he remembered the demented dance, he remembered the love and the care they had for him. Rhea may have been his biological mother but he had never seen her in his life as his mother's figure.
She had always been for him that too-terrifying, too-cold goddess with high expectations. He never truly cared about being her favourite. Sometimes, attention could be disastrous. He may not care but he knew that his older brother, Poseidon did. Their relationship had since long been too broken to be what it was before. There was too much resentment, anger, sadness and betrayal between them but when they quarrelled childishly about who was the favourite, it made him forget for a moment that he had lost his brother.
When he had been fifteen(15), it was decided by his mother that it was time for him to free his siblings. She had helped him infiltrate the stronghold of the Titans. He then did everything to be trusted by them. He did the most excruciating and humiliating thing with a smile. When he was hurt for their amusement, he laughed with them. He remembered what he had to do to be trusted enough to come close to Kronos to enact his plans. He remembered the titan lord and his siblings on his skin. He remembered their disgusting touch. He remembered his screams. He remembered bleeding gold. The day after it he was named cupbearer.
A cupbearer was a person that must have been regarded as thoroughly trustworthy to hold the position. He was the one after all that poured and served drinks to his better. He was one that had in his hands the power of doing great harm if he wanted to.
For 6 months, he stayed as both the cupbearer and the toy of the Titans. They had seen him as theirs. He was their whore Atlas called him. He endured with a smile and one day, with an alchemical mixture of nectar and other mystical components, he poisoned the Titan king and made him regurgitate his siblings.
They had never met him before and it was the same for him yet at this moment, they knew that they were the same, that they were all multiple pieces of a puzzle that didn't fit until they were reunited.
They had escaped Othrys bloodied and filled with the divine equivalent of adrenaline. They had survived. They had together gone back to the island of Crete. This night, the six of them had laid together on the grass contemplating the world. Zeus had wanted this moment to last forever but it didn't.
Kronos had been enraged and had called to his banner almost every creature and being. Kronos had rallied the world itself against them. The haven he grew in had been destroyed the day after.
They may have been born strong but they had never been taught violence or how to fight before. The Titans and their allies taught them savagery, pain and loss. Kronos had begged his mother Gaea to not allow Rhea to intervene and surprisingly, the goddess agreed to do such.
Zeus had never loved suffering but he had become accustomed to it each time they clashed with the Titans and their allies. Each time that they fought, they became better. They began to lose less and less until one day, they began to win.
The Kronides destroyed everything significant to the Titans and their rules. Hestia burnt their worshippers to ashes and danced in their ashes with them. They watched Poseidon remove from the living bodies of their enemies every trace of moisture leaving a living husk behind or used those enemies as puppets. For some, Demeter planted thorns into their bodies that grew and ravaged them from the inside. For some others, Demeter buried them in an inescapable prison at the centre of the earth alive and forever trapped. Hera tortured the immortal enemy they captured with her curses until they broke. Zeus learnt how to use precisely his lightning on their captured enemies. They gain allies that joined them either because of the opportunity they represented like Metis, the Oceanid possessing the domain of wisdom or because of their hatred for the regime of the Titan king or by freeing ancient enemies of The titans that became their allies.
Some of those enemies were the Cyclops that taught them things, secrets unknown to the Kronides and that they only knew because of their mother. They built the weakest of them divine weapons that enhanced their abilities, which could make them equal to their older sisters.
When they had won, when they had ended bathed in the ichor of their fathers, ten years had passed. They made sure to tear limb from limb their father and after that continued to the point what was left was an innumerable number of body parts. They destroyed him so that they would never have the source of their pain again. Together, they had opened a pathway to Tartarus and dispersed the remains of their father on the body of the primordial in every direction so that he could never reform and plague them again.
They had as close as it was possible for immortals to kill their father. They had committed one of the greatest sins, patricide and with it cemented their rule.
The other Titans and defeated enemies had begged for Mercy. The children of Kronos and Rhea, new rulers of the cosmos gave them none. How could they expect kindness had Zeus thought in disgust when they had only shown the Kronides cruelty?
Many would say that the gods had been too harsh, that they could have been better as if by allowing those ancient enemies to continue to exist, they hadn't been kind. How could the gods have been kinder when they had seen each other suffer, and be broken under the attacks of their enemies? Zeus could remember how Poseidon had put himself on the trajectory aimed at Zeus' heart. He remembered how his brother had screamed. He remembered how the daughter of Atlas had laughed. He remembered how Hades had to protect all of them against armies as they had laid broken in his shadows. He remembered his sweet sister Hestia that abhorred violence that had to kill her heart to immolate their enemies, enemies that were what she had forever wished for, their family. He remembered how Demeter threw herself alone time and time again against Kronos and his army to make sure that they could flee. He remembered how Hera was the one to heal him and let him cry on her shoulder when it sometimes became unbearable. How could Zeus possibly forget? How could he forgive?
When they were together after winning, they had promised themselves only one thing, they had promised to stay as a family, they had promised to stay together and always be there for each other.
They each except him broke it and he resented them for it. He had sacrificed everything, he had given up his life, and all the childish dreams he had for them and their answer to his sacrifices was to leave him behind.
Hestia after the war left Olympus. Her throne stayed empty. The war had broken her, changed her. She went to the mortal world to wander aimlessly. Zeus had begged her to stay. She had told him that she needed time if she yearned for loneliness to put her pieces back into place but that she would soon be back. She had lied.
His brothers stayed with him for a moment before they decided that they wanted more. They left each to conquer a domain they saw themselves fit to rule.
Demeter went to the mortal world. She said that she loved the plant life existing in the mortal world so Zeus created natural wonders to which the mortal world couldn't compare. She had looked at him with sad eyes as if she had seen the reason why he had made it. She had kissed the crown of his head and had left.
Hera was the last one to go. She had said that she wanted to carve into the world a place for herself and that she needed to do it alone.
He was supposed to be happy. He had been appointed King of the gods. He was the all-powerful and supreme God of the sky. He was desired by the most gorgeous and beautiful women they represented yet none of those things filled the gap inside of him.
He had gone back one day to the island he had grown up trying to find anything that could help fill his empty heart. He had just found the wreckage of his childhood home. None lived on the island anymore. Maybe the nymph had their essences destroyed or maybe they had been able to flee. Zeus had hoped that it had been one of those reasons why the island was empty because he honestly didn't want to know how Nymphs seen as good-looking would be treated by Kronos and his subordinates when labelled as traitors.
A resolution had bloomed in his heart after having seen what his childhood home had become. He would make sure that the reign of his siblings and he don't end like the reigns before them. He would do everything so every sacrifice made would not be in vain. He would grow powerful, so powerful that nothing could shake The children of Rhea's reign.
He had gone back to Olympus and married Metis even if he hadn't wanted to because it had been the clever thing to do. She was a link to the ocean and knew how to govern perfectly due to her domain.
He reigned for centuries with Metis at his side. He did despicable things that sometimes were advised by Metis and sometimes they were not. He dirtied his hands with the worst actions possible. He destroyed and killed adults, elders and children. He destroyed foreign cultures entirely. He killed or orchestrated the fall of mortals and immortals in his pantheon and other pantheon. He made so much Ichor and blood spill that it could have replaced the water of the oceans with it.
The Gazes of Love and adoration that were etched on the face of his subjects turned little by little into disgust and hatred. He acted as if it didn't exist, he ignored them.
His siblings that had abandoned him had come to see him centuries after. He had been overjoyed until he found out that they came to him because of the rumours and not because they yearned for his presence the way he did for them. He had told them to not worry, that everything they heard about him was wrong. He smiled at them when inside he screamed. He was doing this for all of them, for their sake but they didn't understand. Zeus would have understood if he had been at their place.
One day, while he had been away from Olympus trying to ignore the world, the Sky Father himself had talked to him. He had told Zeus that everything he built, that he wanted to protect would be destroyed because of a snake and that the snake would be the future king. He had told Zeus that the snake will be a child of Metis and him.
When he had come back shaken to his core to Olympus, he will be announced by his wife that she was pregnant with a child, their child.
Zeus had known at that moment what he had to do. Fighting against the fates, the daughters of the inescapable never worked as shown by his predecessors. It was useless to fight but Zeus would have been damned if he didn't do everything in his power to avert the destruction of him and his family.
He had played the role of the happy soon-to-be father. He showered Metis with gifts and played her like a fiddle. She didn't see anything coming.
The prophecy had told him that the child of Metis would be the one destroying everything he had built and become the next king. If he wanted to avoid the prophecy, Zeus knew that the only way he could succeed would be by realising it.
The child was still in the stomach of Metisband most of the divine strength of Metis went to the growth of the child which meant that she was weaker.
Zeus invited her to his childhood home, on the island of Crete. He told her that a child was always a cause for celebration. Zeus may not have been the wisest or smartest god but he understood Metis more than she thought he did.
He proposed her a wager, a battle of wits he had told her where the winner could be afforded any boon they wanted from the other. When he had seen indecision in her eyes, he had struck by saying" You don't have to do it if you fear losing". This sentence was enough to hurt the pride of Metis.
"I am going to win husband" she had declared sure of her. "What is the wager had she asked?"
"We will be going to Olympus shapeshifted as animals. Me as a predator and you as a prey. If I catch you, you lose but if I don't you win. I'll even give you some time to put some distance between us" he had told her.
To be fair to her, she almost won. She was almost at the bottom of Olympus where caught her and swallowed her and their unborn child. He had hated doing it. What he was doing could be considered worse than the actions of his father because his father hadn't tried to swallow Rhea.
Using Obscure rituals that he found, he tried to do what his father should have done to succeed. He succeeded in absorbing Metis. He had through it grown stronger and usurped the domain of Metis. Alas, he hadn't known at that moment that he had failed to do so with the child. Metis in a last act of defiance had used before being absorbed completely by him her powers to assure the well-being of the child.
The child, Athena had been the cause of his fall. All the immortal world learnt about what he did and hated him because of this. They called him a tyrant, a king worse than his father. He carried on because the only thing that Zeus knew how to do was to go forward.
He had become one day inflicted with what seemed to be a curse when he was a god. When it shouldn't have been possible. It had been said that it was his punishment from the Moirai. They were not wrong.
Athena was the punishment that came out of his head. He had tried with all his might at her birth to destroy her completely. He failed. Metis must have known what would Zeus do the first time he saw their child because she had been adorned at her birth in an armour, one that saved her from having her essence dispersed, that protected her from his lightning strike.
Athena had fallen from his attack into the ocean, a domain where Zeus could not go after her. He had been scared. What Ouranos had prophecied to him was happening.
All the sacrifices he made for the sake of his family, of Olympus would be turned nought. He had expected everything except betrayal from his siblings. He had accepted that the world itself would be against him. He didn't care that his children that were born from indiscretions didn't side with him. He just didn't expect his own siblings to be against him too when everything he had ever done, everything that he had ever sacrificed was for them.
Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Poseidon with Athena, his accursed child rebelled against him. He begged his siblings to understand but they didn't want. For them, he was just like their father. He asked for the help of his brother Hades. Maybe his eldest brother would have been able to do anything to stop what was called the first Olympiomachy. The answer of his brother had been to laugh in his face and call him a tyrant.
He had lost against them. He was toppled from his throne, bound into divinity-neutralizing chains made by the spawn of Hera and found guilty. Nothing had ever hurt him more than the looks of disgust and hatred of his siblings. He had done everything for them and they paid him with hatred.
He had been only sentenced to be exiled by them. Maybe, a part of them still cared about their brother. It hadn't mattered to Zeus.
When banished, alone after his defeat, Zeus had given up. He had stopped caring. He had chosen to let himself go, to fade. What was the point of existing when he had lost everything that mattered?
The god Zeus had died and stayed dead for more than a millennium until he was brought back by one person, Hera.
Hera was not satisfied with the power handed to her. She craved more and knew that she was not strong enough to get it by herself alone, so her solution was her fallen brother.
Zeus had asked her why did she believe that he would help her after everything she did to him. Hera was a family deity. She knew what was the deepest wish that Zeus held In his heart. He had accepted it.
They freed some of the Titans, recruited from foreign monsters and divinities. They didn't love each other but made a child to serve as a weapon against Athena. This child would be sacrificed to Ares to make him the equal of Athena, to give him the war domain.
The new regime didn't know any of this. They didn't know that Hera planned to betray them. They waited until it was a day of celebration for the new regime, a day when they would have their guard down.
They used the chains that had been used against him to trap Athena. With the help of Hera, they had been able to poison the nectar and the ambrosia.
It evened out their odds. Both sides fought bitterly and Zeus was happy that the wife of Poseidon didn't intervene. He doesn't think that they would have succeeded if she had acted.
They had at the end won. Zeus had been kind to his traitorous siblings. He commanded Hestia to carve out of herself most of her domains. He restricted his brother Hades to be on Olympus except for the winter solstice. Hades had stood alone, so may he stay mostly alone.
When it came to Poseidon, he made him go through what wasn't even a quarter of what Zeus went through. He made him a mortal slave to the king of Troy. He would have let his brother live the life of a slave and resurrect him after to humble him, something that other gods wouldn't have done. If it had been any other supreme God, Poseidon would have suffered way much worse. Alas, the intervention of his brother's wife changed the duration of his punishment.
His brother after his punishment was lifted had left for a while their pantheon. Zeus had let him because he knew that sooner or later, his brother would have come back. They may all hate each other but they were the only ones truly able to understand each other.
As he had thought, his brother had come back from his self-inflicted exile. He welcomed him to Olympus and acted as if he didn't see the hatred in Poseidon's eyes.
His family was broken and could never truly be called healthy but this facsimile of a family was everything they had, it was everything they knew. They were linked by thorny chains that burrowed into their skins and made them bleed but it was alright for Zeus.
Almost half a century before, a great prophecy was issued by the oracle. The prophecy had said that a half-blood of the eldest gods Shall reach sixteen against all odds And see the world in endless sleep. A single choice it was said shall end his days, Olympus to preserve or raze.
This prophecy was the reason why Zeus hadn't cared about his half-blood Thalia's fate or why he had given Jason to Juno as a gift. They may have been his children but in the great scheme of things, they didn't matter. What mattered was Olympus, his family, not short-lived mortals even if they came from his loins.
He had seen what the demigod of his brother was able to do. He had seen him bring the sky down on the Kindly one, something a mortal of twelve years shouldn't be able to do.
They had told him that he was a child, that he couldn't be the thief but this child even if he was mortal had ichor running in his veins. It made him capable of doing things mortals shouldn't be able to do.
Only a mortal would have been able to steel his lightning bolt. He knew that Poseidon hated him. Poseidon also knew about the great prophecy and yet brought to this world a powerful demigod that he claimed. The child had lived in the same city as Olympus and had always been known as a troublemaker.
It all meant one clear thing to him. His brother wanted to use his child to raze Olympus. His brother said it wasn't the case yet every one of his actions showed the contrary.
"Bia" he called. The Goddess appeared kneeling behind him. She had taken the form of a muscular young adult woman with sun-kissed skin and black hair. She was with her siblings the only one that Zeus truly trusted this day.
He would not say that he loved them as much as his siblings but they came right after. They had been with him since the beginning of the Titanomachy and had never betrayed him. When he was usurped by his siblings, they refused to swear oaths of fealty to their new rulers and because of that were imprisoned in Tartarus. When Hera had come to him, one of his first priorities had been to free them.
He knew he could ask Bia or any of her siblings to jump into Chaos itself and they would do so with smiles on their faces.
"Put in my name," he told her" a bounty of a billion drachma on the head of the half-blood of my brother".
"Your desire will be done, my king" she replied before disappearing to do what he had asked her.
"Thanks, Bia" he spoke. She may have been gone but he knew that she would hear him.
His brother's bastard was a menace. The child was his own blood and shared the same eyes as the brother and the mother of Zeus. Looking at the child was like looking at his brother at times when things were both better and worst. His brother would hate him even more for this but Zeus was sure that one day, he'll understand.
Zeus had all eternity to repair his family. He was doing it for them and he was sure that one day, they will understand.
Chapter 11
Wrote this chapter listening to this:
Thanks again to my beta Cam kaKatarn
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He was a demigod. Somebody that held in their veins powers over reality itself. Somebody that had in their make-up both mortality and divinity. It made the other demigods and him stronger, faster, smarter than most mortals.
They were children of gods and were sleeping on the floor of an overcrowded cabin. Children no more than ten sleeping in conditions more similar to beggars than Gods.
Children that were unclaimed, abandoned. Children that were not seen as worthy of being recognizedby their parents.
The life of a demigod was one full of suffering. Death, suffering and pain waited at every corner. Monsters that were most of the time created by their parents directly or indirectly smelled them the way bears did with honey and slaughtered demigods like cattle.
Most demigods died before their teenage years begging the world, and their parents for life, for help, something that never came.
How was it fair? How was it just? Why were things like this? Luke knew that they could easily be better if the gods cared about their children.
The truth was that the gods didn't care about them. They only saw them as playthings, little toys that they could play with until they break and that was when they thought a demigod of theirs worthy to exist.
He stood up from his bunk bed. On the side of his bed was sleeping uncomfortably a girl no more than seven years old. There were dried tears on her face. A girl that probably had no choice other than coming to camp half-blood. A child that probably lost everything and even in what was supposed to be a haven for her suffered instead of being cared for as she should.
He took her in his arms and put her in the empty spot where he had slept not a minute ago. He hoped that she would feel more comfortable.
Luke looked around him and saw etched on most of the sleeping faces discomfort. It made Luke want to scream.
He took steps to leave the cabin. He needed fresh air. He needed to take time to calm himself and watch the plight of the other demigods, his family wouldn't help.
His arm near the door was held in a tight grip. The one that had stopped him was an unclaimed demigod. He was ten years old named Anthony and had been at camp for a year and a half. He shared some of his features with Clarisse and had an instinctual knowledge of how to use to perfectly use a weapon.
It made evident who his divine parent was. Everyone knew it and yet he slept unclaimed in an overcrowded cabin because he was in the eyes of the god of war not worthy or exceptional enough to be claimed.
Anthony had come to half-blood camp scared, and alone. He had been distrustful toward them and was reacting to every situation with anger.
He had been plunged into a world where the worst nightmares, nightmares that were unimaginable existed. The only reason why he had been able to reach camp was by the sacrifice of his mom. A hellhound had tried to bite him but he had been pushed by his mother away from the attack. The hellhound had missed Anthony but hadn't missed his mother. Her head had been removed from her body by the jaws of the monster. It had saved Anthony and allowed him to reach camp but he had been broken forever.
Luke had been the one to try to create a connexion between the two of them. He knew what he felt to face monsters beyond humanity and survive. He saw with his own eyes what those monsters were capable of. He knew that deep inside him, Anthony had felt alone and scared.
He did everything to make things more bearable for the younger demigod. He included the demigod in all his activities. He used the drachma he had been able to steal of gain to buy things for Anthony.
The young demigod had always answered his actions with anger and scorn yet Luke had continued. One day, the demigod had after a sword spar asked "Why?" He had asked him why was Luke still there when he did everything to push him back. Why was Luke kind to him? Why had Luke cared when his own father didn't?"
"Because we're a family" Luke had replied "and family is supposed to take care of each other."
The youngest demigod had busted in tears. Luke had hugged Anthony until he had fallen asleep exhausted. Demigods were more than toys like their parents saw them. They were persons, with feelings, hopes, dreams and aspirations of their own. They were brought to a cruel world that since their birth wanted them to suffer because of the sins of their parents.
Luke shouldn't have been the one to do this. Ares should have been the one there consoling his child but the god was probably whoring around not caring about the suffering of one of his children.
If Ares had cared, Anthony's mom would still be alive. If Ares had cared, he would have claimed Anthony. If Ares had cared, none of his children would be living in cabins inside a child soldier training camp because this is what was camp half-blood. The things they were taught were fighting, surviving, obey the gods. Luke wanted Greek demigods to not survive. He wanted instead them to live and thrive.
To the mortals, Camp Half-Blood was a summer camp and if it had only been this, it would have been fine but summer camp wasn't supposed to be eternal.
The only parental figure they had was Chiron that was fine with not even trying to change the status quo. Demigods were so emotionally starved, so full of different traumas that most of them saw honoring or being recognized by their parents as more important than their own lives. Luke knew this because he had been in the past like this too.
The camp felt more like an inescapable prison than a home. Luke loved the campers, his family and was forever grateful to have met them. He was glad to have known Silena that looked like the most superficial person yet was one of the kindest person he had ever met in the world. He was glad to have met Alabaster who he considered as his brother and whom Luke knew would always support him. He was glad to have met Ethan that believed the same things that Luke did, that the world should change. It was with Ethan that he had some of his deepest conversations.
He loved so many of them but he would have preferred if he could have never met them because Luke Castellan having met them meant that they had suffered because of the world which made them go to Camp Half-Blood.
He was brought out of his mind "Where are you going" Anthony whispered.
"Just taking a midnight stroll" he answered softly.
"It's dangerous," Anthony said.
"I'll be careful. I promised you after all that I'll always be back. You won't get rid of me for a long time. Only when you will be 90 years, have lived a wonderful and long life and are bored of me that I will leave. Have I ever lied to you?"
The boy shook his head"No, you never have".
"Try to sleep Tony, I'll be back soon. I pinky swear." Luke said to the younger demigod. Luke put his only finger forward.
Anthony crossed Luke's finger with his. The younger demigod yawned. "You need to sleep". Luke kissed the crown of his head.
The demigod nodded and began to drift back to the realm of Hypnos. Luke made under his breath a prayer to the god to give the demigod sweet dreams.
He left the cabin that was named in honor of his father. Thinking about him put Luke in an even fooler mood. Except for Annabeth and Thalia, no one knew that Luke had been raised personally during his childhood by both his parents. Hermes had always been there for him. Sure he knew that his father was different from all the other fathers but he had seen his father as only his father. Hermes was the one that drove him to school. Hermes was the one that picked him up from school. Hermes had been the one that read to Luke before sleeping bed night stories. Hermes had been the only one who had cried when Luke had scratched himself on a street while running.
This perfect Hermes, this perfect father that Luke had admired, and adored had been a lie all this time. He had one day left for an important meeting with May Castellan, Luke's mother. He had come back with someone that Luke could not call his mother because his mother would have never frightened him, and would have never hurt him. The day after they came back, Hermes had left.
Luke had searched for him everywhere he had been able to think of. He had gone from house to house. He had found no one. He had waited with dried tears all night until dawn before their house with the screams and ominous emerald glows from the eyes of his mother that didn't seem to still be his mother inside the house hoping that he would come back.
He hadn't. From then until he ran from their houses could only be described as hellish Luke thought. It had taken time for Luke to realize that he had lost both of his parents. His father was gone and his mother had gone mad. When she had what Luke called fits of madness, his mother was sprouting ominous and scary words about Luke's future when she sometimes unwittingly hurt him. When she came back to her senses, she was almost lifeless like a doll. Luke had to become her caretaker or she would have died. She probably would have died after him leaving if Hermes didn't seem to care for her in a twisted way Luke could not understand. After all, you didn't leave someone you loved especially when they were hurting.
Some rare times, the old her would resurge and she would try to make herself forgiven through overcooked homemade cookies. Those cookies had been the reason why Luke had persevered. It had meant for him that there was a chance of him getting at least his mother back. The overcooked homemade cookies were unfortunately made less and less until they were not anymore.
Luke had been taking care of his mother from seven years old to nine where it had become unbearable. He had realized that day by watching the unnatural voice of his mom, the emerald smokey glow of her eyes that he had lost his mom, that he was an orphan, that the only one that could and would take care of Luke Castellan was him.
He had escaped what was his home to face the cruel world. Before meeting Thalia and Annabeth, it had been Luke alone against the world.
He had been at the beginning naive. He had thought that he could trust mortals and almost perished because of his trust. The first time, he had trusted the police. They had told him at the police department that things would be better, that he was brave. The chief of the police had been an Empousa. He had been lucky to survive. He had used a gun that he had stolen from a police officer to try to hurt her. The bullets had slid on her as if they were droplets of water.
He may have not hurt him but it had been enough to flood her office with police officers which allowed him to escape from her.
Another time, it had been because of a woman that was probably at that time in her thirties like Luke's mom. She had found the sleeping spot of Luke on the streets. She had brought him each day money or food. She had paid for Luke's winter clothes to prevent him from freezing to death. Luke had known her for 3 months. One day, she proposed to Luke for him to come leaving with her. Luke had trusted her, saw her as a mother figure and accepted her proposal.
Nothing bad happened the first week. Luke could even admit that it was one of the best moments of his life. One day, while they were eating, he felt lightheaded. He hadn't paid much mind to it when he should have. He had woken chained to a bed with her looming over him. She had told him that she had drugged him, that she had been kind to Luke because of how he was beautiful. She had told him that she loved him more than he could imagine. She said that she had wanted to make Luke hers forever.
What had allowed Luke to escape had been the demigod powers inherited from his father. He had telekinetically used his powers to unlock the chains while she had her back turned.
Luke had taken a bottle of what seemed to be wine from the side of the bed he had been chained to and had knocked her out. He had run until he couldn't feel his legs anymore. He had run until he had fallen face down on the ground. Luke should have learnt after the second time that he could not count on mortals but he didn't.
The third time had been because of mortals teenagers. They had found one of Luke's hiding spots. They had seen him shivering in the cold, trying to survive, clinging to life.
They had tried to help him. Luke had refused. He wasn't lying when he said that he had been similar to Anthony in the past.
They have continued to try to help and talk to him. Each day, they would come to him with food, clothes, and basic necessities. Luke had been disheartened by the things that had previously befallen him so he had been careful when dealing with them.
Luke would have probably never warmed up to them if they hadn't saved his life. Luke had been staying for too long in the same spot. A monster, a harpy had been able to track him.
Luke was a child without a weapon against a supernatural creature probably older than the united states. The creature had toyed with him. Each failed attack or escape was rewarded with a cut. The harpy had wanted him to bleed him out. The harpy had wanted Luke to know that it would be his end and that nothing could be done to change that fact.
What saved him had been the group of teenagers. They had been able to by some miracle bypass the compulsion of the mist. They had seen the monster in its true form and had tried to fight him, to protect Luke.
They were mortals. None of The things they did worked. The only reason the monster had lost was because the monster had been distracted, had stopped paying attention to Luke and had used the occasion to take the creature in a hard chokehold. He had in a feat of strength that even today he couldn't completely replicate wretched the head of the monster from its shoulders.
He had expected to see fear or hatred in the eyes of the teenagers. There was instead admiration. They admired Luke and it has made Luke feel warm inside.
They had asked Luke about everything he knew, everything he faced and Luke had told them. The teenagers continued to come day after day. Luke had thought at that moment that he had maybe found another family. He hadn't.
Emotions in mortals come and go. They change at the drop of a hat. It could be said that mortals were more mercurial than Gods themselves.
The admiration they had for Luke began unknowingly to turn into jealousy. They had one day told Luke that they wishes they had been at his place. That Luke was like a real-life superhero.
It had angered Luke to no end. Luke would have given up everything they wanted that he had if it could have given him back the family that he had lost. It had turned into an argument, words that they never said but probably always thought of were spewed at him.
They had left angry. Maybe things would have been better the day after when heads would be cool down. Luke would never know. He had left early the morning after.
Luke had learned what he was and his place in the divine world through the words of monsters, nymphs, dryads and naiads. He had learnt from them that Luke's father, Hermes was alive, that he was an immortal and all-powerful god. It meant that Hermes had left because he had probably one day stopped caring.
He had to fend off child traffickers, the mortal police, and monsters disguised as figures of high authority in mortal institutions. The world itself had been Luke's enemy.
The god it was said had more than hundreds of demigods in the last century. Luke was just one of them. Maybe the god had cared but he didn't anymore.
He had met first Thalia. She had been like him. She has come from a dysfunctional home. Her father, who was Zeus which made Thalia( he didn't like to think about it) his aunt had left Thalia and her mother Beryl Grace. Due to the loss of the man she loved, she had become a drug addict. Thalia lost her mother the first time Beryl took a pill.
They had survived together. They had sometimes to scavenge in trash bins sometimes for food. They mostly slept outside and rarely in buildings. People would say that nothing had truly changed when it actually did.
They weren't alone anymore and it changed everything. Luke wasn't only fighting for Luke now. Thalia was not fighting only for Thalia. They were fighting for both Luke and Thalia. They knew that they depended on each other now. They knew that they were the only ones able to make each other survive, that the other counted on them and it made them stronger than the simple addition of their strength.
Annabeth had joined them later. They had not been the perfect illustration of a family but they had considered what they had good enough for them.
At some point, while they were fighting against a monster, Thalia got injured and Luke and Annabeth wanted to rest. The smell of three demigods meant more monsters or stronger monsters. Given the situation, Luke took the girls to his mother's house to heal their wounds. When they approached the house, a loud voice had boomed above: "You shouldn't have returned", but it hadn't mattered to Luke. Only Thalia's injury did at that time. There, Luke finally met his father, Hermes, for the first time since he had abandoned Luke and his mother. Luke had been angry and resentful and had demanded to know why Hermes had never shown up when Luke had desperately prayed while he hid from his mother when she had fits, or when they were running from monsters.
The god had looked at Luke and had dared to say in a sad tone that it was because he couldn't but that he loved Luke and always listened to Luke's prayers to him. He had told him that if he could, Luke neither May would have suffered. Hermes was literally an Olympian god, one of the strongest. Except for his father, no one had direct authority over him. Was he saying that Zeus himself was the one of forbid Hermes from helping? Did he really think that Luke was this dumb?
Luke had stormed off after tending to Thalia's injury. What kind of justification was that? He was rejoined later by Thalia and Annabeth. They didn't ask him what happened what they saw him. They didn't ask why he left so abruptly. They just hugged him.
Things for a moment went back to what they saw as their everyday. They fought, stole, escaped and scavenged to survive. It wasn't easy but it was something they were used to accomplish.
Their new normal didn't unfortunately last long. Hades, the lord of the Underworld had learned about Thalia's existence. The three sons of Kronos and Rhea had sworn an oath of not bringing to the world demigods of theirs. It had been because it was said that they were too dangerous, too much of a threat to the status quo and the lives of mortals. Children of the big three had been the reason why the world wars had been so disastrous and destructive.
Dozen of Millions had died directly or indirectly because of the actions of the children of Hades, Poseidon and Zeus. Hades had unleashed his wrath and all the monstrous abominations on the daughter of Zeus.
It would have been the smart thing to leave Thalia with Annabeth at his side. It would have made it infinitely easier for the two demigods but they were family and family stuck together through everything be it good or bad things.
They had been found by Grover that had tried to lead them safely to camp. They hadn't been so lucky. The monsters had smelled and were after them thirsty and hungry for demigod blood and flesh. Each moment on the road to Camp half blood had been one that could have been their last.
They had to fight at every moment to earn the possibility to survive. They had almost made it to Camp when they had been caught up by the most dangerous monsters.
Luke had been weak. He had been unable to help, he had been unable to protect Thalia. She had sacrificed herself to make sure that they would reach camp. Thalia wanted to live. Thalia that wanted to experience the most exceptional thing in the world was denied her dream. She had told him once while they were looking at the starry sky, Annabeth sleeping between them that what she wished the most was to be free. She had wanted to be free from the monsters, the run, from the nightmares and marks left in her psyche by her parents. She wanted a world she had said where Annabeth, Luke and her could be happy together.
He had told her that he would make sure that one day, her dreams would come true. He had under the night sky promised to create a world where children wouldn't have to fear for their lives, a world where demigods wouldn't have to fear being killed by monsters, and a world where they could be forever happy.
She had laughed at his answer. She had called him sappy yet she had intertwined at that moment her fingers with his. They had fallen asleep like that this night. Luke had broken his promise. He had let his best friend, his family die before his eyes.
The still-warm corpse of Thalia had been turned into a pine tree. It had been said that Zeus had done it because he didn't want the soul of his demigod to suffer forever in the underworld at the hands of his brother. The pine tree had created a barrier that made monsters unable to cross unless they were explicitly invited in.
The death of Thalia broke Luke even more. He had lost his family again and again. Each time that Luke walked into the camp, he saw the corpse of his friend. Each time that he saw the tree, it made him remember how Thalia had died.
Worse than Thalia being dead, the demigods were praising Zeus. Those demigods praising Zeus had been the same ones that could have helped but didn't. If they had helped, maybe Thalia wouldn't have died, and maybe a part of Luke wouldn't have died too with her.
Fortunately, the demigod that could have helped them didn't have died going to quests or outside camp. It made things easier for Luke. Luke did not have to bathe his hands in their blood.
Luke had almost given up. The reason that he had that had stopped him at first, that had pushed him even with his grief to continue had been Annabeth. Luke knew what it was to lose both parents. He couldn't do the same with Annabeth. Luke had pushed all his despair and anger inside. He would allow himself to be able to feel only after Annabeth was taken care of.
He was at the beginning only with Annabeth and little by little, it became to englobe all camp. They all were alike. Their experiences if they weren't the same ones rhymed with each other. Luke being one year and a half at camp made him the eldest of them. No demigod had lived since the beginning of the modern era for more than two decades.
No one amongst the demigods expected a happy ending and Luke wanted to desperately change it. He wanted them to be able to imagine for themselves a bright future, one they would be happy.
He may have failed Thalia but he wouldn't fail them. Thalia had talked of a world where they could be free, Annabeth, Luke and her. He will make the dream real but for all the half-bloods.
He had at first tried by petitioning the Olympians, the patrons of the half-blood camp. He did Everything he could think of. He prayed but they didn't answer. He sacrificed more and sometimes all of his food to them but they didn't answer. He wrote letters to the address of the god. The letters were not answered. He asked for the help of Mr D that should have understood but the god was a jaded one.
He had said that all the things Luke was doing were useless and that he should stop. Luke didn't listen. He continued with resolve and desperation in his heart.
He sneaked out of the camp to find monsters or creatures to sacrifice or slay in the name of the gods. He sacrificed the body parts of dangerous monsters but he wasn't answered to.
One day, he had enough. He had done everything that he had thought could help but none of those things had worked. It had crushed Luke. How could he care about the camp, his family and not be able to do anything to help them?
He had in anger at that moment punched through a rock on the beach he was at. The same miraculous strength that had helped him to survive once and that he had never been able to access since had resurfaced briefly.
The rock had been atomized but Luke unlike the last time hadn't been left without backlash. It had made spill on the sand under him his blood from a little cut. He had an epiphany at that moment. The greatest sacrifice that Luke could make for the camp was Luke himself. Blood had power and Like had in his veins the divine Ichor of one of the Olympians.
He had that night lit up a Brazier and with a knife had tried to offer his blood to whoever divinity would help the demigods. At the moment of the act, he had been stopped by none other than his father.
It was the first and only time that Luke had seen anger etched on the features of his father. Hermes had screamed at Luke calling him stupid and naive. He had told him that Luke would commit the greatest folly possible, that with Luke's blood, anyone with mystic knowledge could manipulate him or worse.
The shock had left Luke's body at that moment and had been replaced by anger. He had screamed back at his father that he knew what it would mean but that he didn't care as long as it helped his family, the demigods of the half-blood camp, children that no one cared about when their parents were Gods.
He had told Hermes that he could have done something, that he was an Olympian god but he didn't care. Hermes answered that he did care, that it was just complicated but that he really cared but how could Luke believe him when one of the children that was unclaimed in the Hermes cabin shared the same features that all of the children of Hermes had?
The god's anger had morphed into sadness, the same sadness he ever had when looking at Luke since he had left their home when May had become inflicted with madness. Luke could see the god trying to say something, find a sentence to express something that only he could understand but Luke had stopped caring about Hermes for a long time. He left Hermes that night alone with words never said.
The day after, it was announced that a quest had been issued by Hermes personally to Luke. Luke was supposed to steal a golden apple from the garden of the Hesperides, a garden that was the property of the queen of the Olympian gods. It was the same quest that Heracles had already done.
What was the point of him repeating a quest that was already done? What was the glory of it? What would it bring to the camp or Luke?
He had wanted to refuse but he didn't because it would have been impossible. Demigods were supposed to be the tools, the soldiers, the playthings of the gods. Refusing a quest from a god, an Olympian god even if he was Luke's father would bring bad consequences and Luke feared that he wouldn't be the only one to pay.
He had accepted the quest alone. He had fought on his lonesome against monsters and Luke had thrived. Adrenaline had permitted his body. Every action he was making was one perfectly calculated. Luke had felt alive for the first time since Thalia's death. He wasn't a weak child anymore that could be bullied around by supernatural creatures.
He fought on his way to the garden mortals, monsters, nature spirits and even a minor god and Luke had never been forced to back down. He had thrown himself with abandon to each obstacle and broke through them. Things had gone wrong when Luke finally acceded to the garden.
Ladon, the creature guarding the tree from which sprang from the golden apples was unlike everything Luke had ever fought or seen in all his life. That thing shouldn't be called a monster. It would be like comparing a matchstick and the sun. All the monsters he had met before were mere embers but that thing was like the sun itself. It was deadly and dangerous and just its presence impacted the world.
Luke had been scared by its presence. He had been back to being the child hiding from his mad mother in a pantry. The thing with a movement of one of its claws almost killed Luke. It wasn't a fight where Luke could with luck, strength or skill win. It was a fight against the world, against the inevitability of death.
Luke had miraculously been able to dodge. It hadn't been enough for Luke enough to come out unscathed. He felt sweaty as if he was running a fever. His limbs shook and Luke had to force himself to not let go of his weapon.
The beast with each movement liberated what seemed to be a miasma that corroded matter. Everything around Luke has become rotten. What had looked like a beautiful garden was replaced with ashes and dust.
Each breath that Luke was taking was one that was labored. He could feel death waiting at his side. Power and strength surged from him, from an unknown part to try to make him survive longer.
With a dash, Luke had sent himself flying toward the unearthly beast. His celestial bronze sword gleamed golden in the light.
Luke used it to adjust his course. He could see the gaze of the creature following all of his actions. Luke's newfound speed would not help him. Luke was like an ant trying to fight the sky itself. He knew he could not win but he wasn't there in the garden to fight.
His goal in the garden was one of the golden apples. He waited until he saw the tell tales of a movement from the monster. When he saw it, he threw with strength his sword into the ground. He used it as a support to change his trajectory.
His heel entered into contact with the top of the handle of the sword. The sword began to sink into the ground like butter. Craters began to form slowly in Luke's vision around the sword.
With a push, Luke changed his trajectory. The place he was turned to nothing by a breath of the monster.
Luke put one of his arms forward. The golden apple was an air breath away from Luke's hand.
Alas, Luke had at that moment forgotten something, something vital. The monster had more that could be the end of Luke than his frightening appearance, his toxic breath, and his numerous dragon heads. He had a tail with what looked like claws on it that looked more like sharpened swords than anything.
The creature with a movement had sent his tail hurling at Luke. Luke had tried to dodge by spinning on his right side. He wasn't able to dodge completely.
His quick thinking had allowed him to survive but the monster had struck true. Luke had felt on his face warm blood, his blood. There was stuck on the side of Luke one of the claw-like structures of the monster. Luke had watched at that moment the face of the monster and had seen amusement.
All this time Luke had been alive not because he had briefly outsmarted the thing but because the monster had found it funny.
Luke had seen in the many eyes of Ladon his own reflection, the reflection of a scared child trying to force himself to breathe, that had realized that he would probably soon die.
Instinct had taken over Luke. He had done what he had always done since childhood when he was scared. Luke had run like a coward. Luke Castellan had failed and tried to run from death.
Maybe it was luck, maybe the monster had seen it as too low for him to end Luke but Luke had escaped the Garden of the Hesperides.
He had fallen unconscious outside of it poison running through his veins and all the ambrosia and the nectar he had left in his back that was remaining in the garden of the Hesperides.
It should have been his end. Luke Castellan should have gone to the realm of Hades with bitterness and disappointment as most demigods and mortals did.
He had awoken instead at the infirmary of camp Half-blood surrounded by sleeping demigods all around him. The claw that had been stuck on his face was now positioned at his bedside. He had been brought dying it was said into the crying arms of Hermes himself. He would have died if Apollo hadn't come himself to make sure the poison would not destroy him at the demand of his father.
Luke Castellan had failed and because of his failure had Quests banned. Even though they were dangerous and something that any demigod should never have to do before adulthood Luke thought, other demigods begged for them because it was for them one of the only ways to make their parents proud of them. Luke had expected anger. Instead, he had received pity as if he was forever crippled.
Luke had felt alone, weak, and vulnerable. It was at that moment that in his dreams, Kronos had found come to him. He knew everything about Luke. He knew of his anger, his hatred for the gods and their unwillingness to improve the living conditions of their children. He saw in Luke a desire for change and capitalized on it.
They made an oath, the two of them. They agreed to end the Olympian order, to change this world rules by indolent and apathetic gods. They swore to make a better world for the denizens of camp half-blood.
Luke had found his way to change things but change could truly never be done by one person even with the backing he had. What made an ideal succeed, live on, and be immortal was it being shared, being upheld by many.
In case they failed, Luke wanted his ideas to live on. He began to pay attention to the demigods, especially those that harboured inside of them anger and hatred towards the gods and found plenty of them.
He began to reunite them, to make a group that will make sure that no demigod would be facing the Titans or fighting amongst the Olympians.
He waited and plotted for years for the future war. He created contacts both in the mortal and the divine world. He collected and search for mystical knowledge and weapons that would help his cause.
One day, the opportunity was awarded to Luke. It was the time of the year of the annual visit of Camp half blood to Olympus. He knew that in their stronghold, the god was much more inattentive about what they saw below them. For them, nothing could happen to them in Olympus.
It was because of this reason that both Hades and Zeus had left unguarded on their throne room their symbols of power. It had been so easy for Luke. It would have been harder to steal candy from a baby.
He had almost succeeded in his heist when he was found by Ares in an artificial realm created by sorcerers the size of Chicago hidden from the eyes of the Olympian gods. The god of war had been strong. Luke could not deny it but the god was not stronger than Luke. The god and Luke had clashed. The demigod status of Luke hadn't mattered.
Even when the god had removed his mortal skin to face Luke, Luke still had been able to keep up for a while with the god. Luke through his research into sorcery and the growth of his powers that he could access at will had found a way to look at the god's divine form and not die. It was a sight that was unforgettable, that was etched in Luke's mind.
Watching the divine form of Ares had been watching war itself. It had been experiencing and watching all the atrocities and slaughters made in wars by both mortals and immortals.
Luke would have died if not for the words whispered to him by the crooked ones. He had told him with honeyed words that if the Master Bolt was successfully stolen, there would be a full-scale war.
The look the god had given him was one that had been told Christmas came early. It was known that by his nature, Ares was a warmonger but it shouldn't have been so easy to convince him. Luke had realized that the Titan king even if still trapped and cut in many parts in Tartarus had been able to influence the god to make him accept something he normally would not.
The god even if he accepted the proposal still took the weapons and left. The Titan king to punish Luke had tormented him in the sleeping world. Luke hadn't fought it.
Even though it had hurt, Kronos was the only way for now that Luke had to change things. Kronos may have made an oath with Kronos and he knew that he could trust the Titan to go against Olympus but to help improve the lives of the demigods, Luke wasn't sure of it.
Luke didn't trust him. Kronos was the father of the Olympian gods and they had inherited their cruelty from him. He will let the Titan think Luke trusted him. He would do everything ordered by it. He will learn little by little all that has to be learnt from the Titan and his allies and when the time will be right when the Titan will have done what Luke wanted, Luke would eliminate him.
Olympus exploded into Chaos after Luke's robbery. There was war brewing, one between the heavens and the oceans. It was found that Poseidon had sired at his turn like his younger brother had in the past a half-blood child and luckily for Luke, the demigod lived in the same city as Olympus. A War between the Olympians will no matter who wins weaken them, something that will help Luke's cause.
When Luke was sleeping, he was told in a dream from Kronos that soon, the demigod would come to the haven of the demigods and become another camper. This demigod would be coming to camp half-blood and will be someone who would willingly but unknowingly take the stolen weapons of the gods down to Tartarus, therefore, ensuring that there would be a war and that there would not be a chance of reconciliation between the Olympians.
The demigod had come not long after at camp half blood. He had been escorted by Grover. No, it was wrong to say it like that. It would be more accurate to say that the demigod had escorted himself to the camp because he was carrying on his shoulders an unconscious satyr. Grover always failed to do what should be done. The mother of the demigod named Percy had died before the eyes of the child. Luke felt pity and empathy for the young demigod Percy.
He also felt guilt. No one knew but if Luke had not stolen the bolt, Percy would have probably been right now with an alive mother and not worrying about matters of the divine world but it was impossible to change things without sacrifices. When it will all be finished, when Luke will succeed, he will let the younger demigod run through him if he wanted with his blade.
He was shaken out of his thought by the sound of giggling naiads. He had walked from Hermes cabin to the lake. He put his right hand before him like in a gesture done when receiving a gift. In the air, a black fracture materialized. From the dark rift came out a mini Greek jar. On the jar were drawn images of demons fighting angels.
"Luke Castellan himself. I hope that you had not forgotten. It would be a shame if the director and Chiron learned that you went past curfew" One of the beautiful naiad said.
"I don't break promises" Luke answered. He poured the content of the jar into the body of water. "Nectar like promised".
The naiads shivered as if ecstasy had been poured straight into their veins. From their mouths came sounds that could not be called kid friendly.
"You never disappoint Luke Castellan. It's a shame you have not joined us once when asked." She batted her eyes at him" Don't you find us beautiful?"
"Few could compare to any of you in beauty. You're all proof by your existence and the features you possess that perfection exists. I just don't want to." Luke answered.
"Well it is what it is" The naiad shrugged "but in case you change your opinion. Come to us".
"I will. Just not today" Luke answered. The sea nymphs lost shape and disappeared into the lake leaving Luke alone.
Luke sighed. Dealing with naiads or any supernatural beings became sometimes exhausting when they either wanted to hurt Luke, Kill him, jump his bones or all the above at the same time. He wasn't oblivious to the looks he received from others. He just found it easier and better to ignore them. Luke was not sure that he could enter an authentic and healthy relationship as long as he didn't realize his goals and stopped in his head thinking of blue electric eyes and raven hair.
He sat on the bank of the lake. Luke was not a good person and probably deserved everything that ever happened to him. His plans would hurt and end the lives of countless people. He had let Annabeth, his own sister go on a quest destined to fail. He had begged her to stay at camp with him. She had seen it as him not believing in her, in her capabilities. She did not understand that she was going to her own demise.
Annabeth will probably die due to a quest that was Luke's fault. Luke would probably be the cause of the death of another of his loved ones. The only thing that Luke did was make mistakes. He made mistakes that caused Thalia's death and him being unable to forbid Annabeth from the quest was another one but soon, he will be correcting all of them.
He will after destroying the current world order bring back to life all the demigods that suffered directly or indirectly because of the gods or Luke's plan.
Luke will have all eternity to repair his family. He was doing it for them and he was sure that one day, they will understand.
A fun fact and a little question. Luke means "bright one," "bringer of light," and "light of the sacred flame. Castellan can mean governor or warden of a fort or a castle. It means that Luke Castellan of half-blood camp literally means governor of half-blood camp, the light bringer. The question is do y'all think Luke was wrong?
Chapter 12
Wrote this while listening to this song:
Thanks again to my beta Cam Katarn
He had awakened in the room that had been given to him when they came to his father's hostel. His last memory was watching the starry sky with Chrysaor, his brother.
A brother, Percy had now a brother. It had not been more than one day since he met Chrysaor but Percy wanted to trust him.
Chrysaor had seen Percy and not the demigod child of Poseidon. Chrysaor had seen Percy and was the first to acknowledge what Percy was doing. He had been the first adult since his entrance into the immortal world that had shown him respect, that had since the beginning been upfront.
Percy let his back leave the divine softness of the covers of the bed. Before coming here, Percy had never slept more comfortably in a bed.
The room that had been given to him looked more like the room of a billionaire than a room that would be given to a twelve-year-old.
The opulence of the room made Percy feel guilty. Here he was basking in an out-of-the-world luxury in a room at least three times bigger than his cabin in camp while most campers in the Hermes cabin slept on makeshift beds or with discomfort because of how crowded it was.
Percy had done nothing special to deserve it yet just because his father cared, he was awarded all of this. It wasn't fair.
His bare feet touched the marble. He went towards the door and opened it. On both sides of it were warriors with tridents. They saw him and kneeled.
"Please stand up, please," Percy said to them. He had tried to make them stop kneeling each time they saw him because honestly, it kinda made Percy uncomfortable and uneasy. They had told him that they couldn't not kneel before him, that Percy's existence was one superior to theirs and that should be worshipped at any moment. They sounded like fanatics, cultists.
They stopped kneeling "As you wish my prince" they answered. It would be also cool if they listened to his wish of never kneeling before him each time they saw Percy but anyway.
" Why are both of you in front of my door? Neither of you were there originally?" Percy asked them.
"Things have changed your grace" one of the guards replied.
"What changed?" Percy questioned.
The two guards looked at each other as if debating telepathically if they should tell Percy the reason why. Before they could decide if they should tell him or not, one of the hostel staff came before them. There was manager written in gold letters on the uniform of the sea creature, a Telekhine Percy had been told. " I'll handle it. I'll bring the prince to his brother and his companions. Go reinforce the security outside".
The guards nodded and left. "My Prince, may I ask you to follow me? I'll explain everything while I lead you to your companion and to your brother."
"Alright," Percy replied. The Telekhine began to walk. Percy followed him. " so what's happening?"
"It is because of your lord uncle my prince, the ruler of the sky ha-" Whatever the telekhine wanted to say was cut by the sound of a giant TV.
On the TV, there was written emergency on the left side of the Tv in big red letters. The person on the tv was an old black man dressed in a business suit. His name was written on a little corner: Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations.
He began to talk "I represent before you all the nations members of the United Nations. We are at risk of extinction and it is because of only one person."
An image of somebody that Percy knew perfectly. An image of him appeared on the Tv.
His friends and his brother came to him.
"Percy, maybe you shouldn't watch," Grover told him.
"That's my picture on an announcement international being made by the UN. How am I not supposed to watch?" Percy answered.
"There is no point in trying to hide it. He will learn it soon enough. Better now than later" Annabeth spoke.
"Chrysaor?" Percy said. The only thing his brother was put his arm on his shoulder as if to support him.
The UN secretary continued" The child in this picture is called Perseus Jackson. He had before disappeared in a strange incident that left the car of his stepfather a wreck. Perseus Jackson had always been known as a troubled child by his peers, his teachers and his stepfather. Unfortunately what seemed to be bad but harmless behaviour evolved into something worse. We didn't know before today that Perseus Jackson was the son of the chief executive of the greatest black ops organization in the world called Atlantis. Atlantis went rogue and is trying to destroy the world order. They're motivated by madness and anger. Perseus had a day met his father without anyone knowing and was given a mission by his father, to steal a powerful weapon developed by the five founders of the UN in case of a great threat to all. The weapon was hidden in New York in a place even the President of the United States of America didn't know but Perseus found it. "
It began to be hard to breathe for Percy "What is happening? what's happening!? This is just a nightmare, right?"
"Unfortunately my Prince, it is truly happening," The telekhine manager said to Percy.
Percy lost his balance. The arms of Chrysaor were there to ensure he doesn't fall. A chair that looked like a throne materialized behind Percy for him to sit.
"It's false. All of this is wrong". Percy spoke softly.
"It is brother but the Olympians are the rulers of this world and you made yourself an enemy of their king just by existing. The god of the sky wants you dead and he will do anything to make sure you meet an early end" Chrysaor answered.
"But we're on a quest for his bolt. The quest isn't even finished. Why would he do this??" Percy said.
"For the youngest brother of our lord, everyone is seen as guilty until it is proven otherwise" The manager declared.
On the TV, the secretary continued to talk" Perseus Jackson already used momentarily the weapon. He destroyed a road to the point it doesn't exist anymore. The use of the weapon had left behind an endless hole. The people that were around Perseus Jackson when he used the weapon died or were heavily harmed."
On the TV was shown the place where Percy and Alecto had fought. There were yellow bands put around the epicenter of his attack. There were military officers in tactical armor around the place. It was possible even on Tv to see huge traces of blood that had dried on the asphalt. There were hundreds of people trying to enter the enclosed zone. It looked like the scene of an apocalyptic movie.
"It is because of that" the Secretary continued" and the fact that none of our agents had been able to find Perseus Jackson that the United Nations put a large cash reward in dollars for the person that captures or eliminates Perseus Jackson". A number appeared on the TV.
"There are more than eleven zeros" Grover whispered".
"It is imperative that Perseus Jackson be found. Anyone with a criminal record that succeeds will be pardoned immediately. It is a question of life or death for all humankind. I Wish luck to anyone in their hunt The fate of the world lay on your shoulders," the secretary said.
The diffusion ended on this note. Percy felt crushed. Even if he succeeded in his quest, nothing will change the fact that he will be known in the whole world as a terrorist. He could never go back to how his life was before.
He felt even more tired than he usually normally felt these days since his introduction to the supernatural world. He should be screaming, crying and a big part of it wanted it but an even greater part of him was consumed by Anger so deep and so cold it left Percy numb.
"Zeus wants to kill me" Percy began to laugh. Around him, the others except his brother and his companions began to back down as if they were in front of a dangerous predator.
He stood up from his chair-like throne. " I'm tired of trying to be good and only receiving at the end scorn and hatred. Zeus, I know you can hear me." Lightning tore the sky of Virginia Beach. The sound of thunder that came immediately after was one that seemed to come straight from hell. It grated on the ears in a painful melody. It was like the sound of the damned, an ear-shattering sound of promised destruction. Percy continued as if nothing happened" I just say one thing to you. Bring your worst Zeus" Percy screamed.
The world itself shook and was painted in a blue-purple light for a second. Percy turned toward Annabeth, Grover and Chrysaor.
There was shock written on the faces of the two campers as if they could not believe what Percy had done. Chrysaor unlike them looked proud, proud of Percy. Watching all around him, he saw that Chrysaor wasn't the only that agreed and respected his decision.
All around him, they were kneeling before him, their head pressed on the ground before him in deference.
The words he wanted to say were interrupted by the apparition of a green hologram of his father. Being in the hostel had felt like being in the water for Percy. Since he was there, he had never felt physically stronger but when his dad appeared, it was as if the sun itself was now powering Percy. Percy felt as if he could with his two hands throw out mountains like basketball balls. Grover and Annabeth were now on the ground too but unlike the sea creatures that did it of their own will, it was as if gravity itself had pushed their bodies down.
"This is a message to all the denizens, all the children of the sea," the Emerald apparition of his father said. "The lord of the sky dared to put a bounty on the head of my youngest half-blood child for something he didn't do." the apparition hissed. "My brother is supposed to be justice but the currents have proven that is not in any way true. Because of that. "The voice of the apparition began to boom" I Poseidon, Ruler of all the Oceans and Waters of the world, declare all war on the surface world. I curse all liquids on the surface world. No liquid will be drinkable or safe to consume for anyone, not of the seas. I unleash upon the surface world the monsters of the trench and everyone that has died within a body of water since the beginning of this world. I release on the world all my spite, all my anger. As long as my child is falsely persecuted the Oceans will not accept any excuses from the surface world. No peace shall be known for any mortal or immortal, so long as my child stands accused of false crimes, so declares Poseidon Ruler of the Seven Seas. Let this accursed world that dares to go against what I hold dear perish if needs be, for what all need to thrive is revoked, I have spoken" The apparition after finished transmitting the message disappeared in motes of green.
" So what's the plan, little brother? You don't have to leave this temple if you want to. You don't have to fight anymore" Chrysaor told him.
" I know" Percy answered." In the beginning, I had accepted, to be honest, this quest because of one thing. I wanted to save my mother. My desire has not changed".
"It seems that I will follow you to the Underworld," Chrysaor said.
"You don't have to. Dad only asked you to protect us through the quest but I don't care about the quest anymore. Maybe the quest will never be accomplished" Percy told the older son of Poseidon.
"You are my brother. I chose to call you that when I didn't have to. I failed Callirhoe but I won't fail you. We're family and family support each other" Chrysaor answered.
Percy felt Warmth inside him. Percy would have to probably go through things that would destroy, and break most people but having Chrysaor with him, Percy felt as if his burdens and worries had been lessened.
A smile bloomed on Percy's face. He knew that if he broke Chrysaor and his father would be there to put him back in place.
Percy turned toward Annabeth and Grover." None of you got to follow me. I challenged Zeus and Hades already want me dead. The world itself will be against me. I'm sure that we could find a way to make the both of you go back to camp safely." He turned toward one of the kneeling Telekhine that nodded as if to confirm his word.
The shock that was on their faces had been replaced with resolve and steel. Percy already knew their answers. "I will come with you Percy. There are great chances of us dying but I would prefer to die at the side of my friend than die as a coward" Grover said steel in his voice.
"Who do you think I am Percy Jackson," Annabeth said. " I trained all my life for that, I'm not scared." Her voice began to soften" And even if it's not been long, I feel like I know the true you, your true character. I believe wholeheartedly that you are not the thief. I am tired of being powerless before children of the big three are hurt because of something that is not their fault just because they just exist."
" what hour is it?" Percy asked.
"It is 5 am my lord. The sun god hadn't begun his task yet" One of the still kneeling soldiers said.
"Good" Percy replied. "We leave at dawn"
Percy turned to the TV that was repeating the announcement of the United Nations in a loop. Percy should be scared, terrified but a savage smile bloomed on his face he could only feel anticipation.
He grabbed the pearl collar that had been given to him by his father. Through it, he could feel his father's presence and his father's love for him. Percy could feel strength permeate his bones. He could feel himself becoming stronger, wilder and colder with each second that passed deep inside him. Percy may have failed many things in his short life but for once, Percy swore that he will crush anything on the path of his objectives.
Chapter 13
Wrote this chapter while listening to this:
Thanks again to my beta Cam kaKatarn
She watched invisibly through all the existing hearths and homes of the world both mortals and immortals panic. Her brother had not been subtle.
To be honest, she didn't really know what to think about everything happening. On one side Poseidon had challenged the entire world for his child. He had done what he had promised, to be a better father than the Titan king.
She could feel due to her nature as a family goddess the love that her brother and his latest half-blood had for each other. A love that was deep and powerful. It was the kind of love that made insignificant mortals dare to challenge the Fates, the world and its horrors.
On the other side, it made her angry. If Poseidon felt this way towards all his siblings, their family might not be as broken as it was today.
What did this child do to make Poseidon care so much? She knew of the existence of the child since his first breath. After all, it fell within her domain to know every member of her family.
Poseidon had loved the child before but it had not been like this. Things changed when Poseidon claimed his son. All of a sudden, it was as if something fundamental had changed in her brother.
She didn't know what happened but it made Poseidon care for the child as much if not more than his siblings, something even when they went to war against each other in the past never happened.
She watched from the hearth of the Olympian Council how her family bickered. Zeus had summoned them to an extraordinary assembly.
Her brother tried to act as if he wasn't affected but Hestia could feel inside of him anger and was it sadness? It was indeed sadness.
The pride of her family members would be their end. If only they could discard it like Hestia did, if only they could try to communicate and understand each other, things would not have ended up this way.
They had forgotten that Pride had been one of the reasons for the downfall of their Titans precursor. What was the point of power or pride if in the end, none of the things you held the most dear in your soul could be realized?
Hestia could try again like she did countless times in the past to try to reconcile all the members of her family with each other but she was exhausted. She had all her immortal life tried, tried and tried and there were no results to show.
Maybe they were cursed all along. Maybe unlike, the Titans and Ouranos, their fate was not to be dethroned but to lose what had given them the strength to fight and win, to lose their family.
Every Olympian god was present except for her brother, Poseidon. They all looked grim except the foreigner. After all, what Poseidon had done was something that even the stopping of the seasons that had been done by Demeter in the past didn't come close to. Demeter had almost rid the entire world of all mortal life because of her daughter.
Poseidon instead wanted to destroy both the mortal and the immortal sides of the world. It was folly yet it made Hestia smile.
"I suppose that we all know the reason for this meeting" the voice of Zeus boomed.
"Yeah, we're here because of the action taken by the Sea Lord, Father," Dionysus said. "I should have got rid of his half-blood the first second I saw him" Dionysus scoffed. "It would have made things easier for everyone".
"What's done is done" spoke Athena. "We can't change the past. The only thing we can do is think about the future. We have to find a way to get a handle on the situation".
Athena turned towards her sire "Father, maybe the wisest thing to do would be to at least retract the bounty placed on the head of Poseidon's spawn. It could alleviate his fury and make him retract his curse".
"You want me to allow a thief, the thief of my lightning bolt to be able to walk freely in my world?" the voice of the sky god boomed. Arcs of lightning had begun to flicker around the Olympian king. His blue eyes had been discarded to be replaced by the true eyes of the god. The mortal blue eyes had been replaced by lightning.
The Kronide looked as if he wanted to throw with wild abandon at his child and he didn't only by a thread.
Even though she faced an almost mad god that would probably try to destroy her with joy at the first opportunity, Athena stayed calm. The goddess didn't back down. She looked her father in the eyes and said "Yes, Even if we can create a new humanity or make new demigods after this disaster, it would be too much-wasted energy."
"The curse of your brother is not only toward us but the entirety of the world. I felt it, like a snake trying to burrow itself into the veins of the world and poison them. The curse feels also too strong even for your brother." Aphrodite spoke.
"Stop your riddles and say your piece Aphrodite" Zeus said.
"Either your brother has found a way unknown even to us to grow substantially stronger or he has the full backing of his wife this time. It means that we could be facing more than just your brother, something at the level of a primordial deity" Aphrodite told Zeus.
Fear began to appear in everyone present. The second Olympiomachy had been won because most of the oceans had not backed up Poseidon because of Triton but if the wife of her brother intervened directly, there was a large chance that Olympus could cease to exist.
Hestia could see uncertainty etched on the faces of most gods and Zeus could too. They thought that it would be a war mostly against Poseidon and some of his subjects. They had thought that in case of a war, they would be victorious, Poseidon would be punished for a moment before gaining back his divinity and his half-blood would be killed. But now it was clear that this would not be the case.
A lot of gods that had sworn to support Zeus, would now be looking to switch sides after Poseidon's actions. Most of the children of her brother already hated him but were loyal to him because they were scared and didn't have any better options, but now that they did, most would not hesitate to betray Zeus.
Zeus had filled the Olympian council with most of his children so that in a fight against one of his siblings or an exterior threat, he would have the upper hand but most of them hated him and Hestia could not blame them.
Zeus had raped Artemis's huntresses in the past while he had taken the form of Artemis herself so Artemis hated him. That would have been enough for Apollo to hate Zeus because of the links the twins had but most of the huntresses that had been raped at that time were his children, so both of the archer gods hated him.
Athena may hide it well but Zeus was the one that killed her mother when he tried to make sure Athena wasn't born and also the incident where he killed the daughter of Triton made sure that Athena would never stop hating her father.
Heracles, one of his strongest children was exiled to the old world in Greece because he had supported Athena's bid to the throne.
The only ones he hadn't directly or indirectly hurt in a way are Hermes, one of the youngest of them and Ares that had been intentionally conceived to be a counter to Athena.
"There must be a way for us to counter Poseidon. We can not let him do as he pleases. There must be consequences" Zeus said while tightly gripping his throne.
"Consequences," A familiar voice said. It resonated in all the council room. From the ground, a hole opened with a roar. A hand came out of it and scratched the marble leaving deep gashes in it. He clawed out of the divine marble like a demon from the seven hells. The figure was unmistakably her brother, a brother who was the cause of all the chaos happening.
"You began without me and even barred me from entering Olympus. It is rude of you brother". The Lord of the Seas said in a careless tone as if he hadn't declared war on Olympus.
"You" their younger brother hissed. "How dare you?
"If any of you think I regret it, I'm sorry to disappoint you. I'm just here to tell you that I won't involve my wife. It would be too unfair. All other sea deities though will be against you." Poseidon spoke.
"Poseidon stop this madness. You're doing all of this for a mortal that most likely not going to live more than half a century". Hera left her throne to put herself in front of Poseidon. "Please brother" she said while looking at him in the eyes. She put the palm of her hand on the left cheek of Poseidon's face. "Please brother, end this madness. We're your family, we are the only ones you know you can truly count on, we're the only ones that will always be there for you and that truly knows you."
Poseidon and Hera had discarded the older form they took before most immortals and mortals. They had unconsciously taken their original shape, the one they had when they came out of Kronos and fought against the Titans.
The younger Olympians gasped in unison. No one would know how similar Poseidon and Hera were until they took their original forms. They looked almost identical. Only the feminine and womanly curves of Hera distinguished them.
The sea god said nothing. He closed his eyes and he leaned in the touch of his sister. Hestia felt in Poseidon love, longing. For a moment she thought that maybe bloodshed and conflict could be evaded.
No other Olympian god dared to speak. The Kronides rarely showed before people other than themselves affection.
The love that was inside Poseidon was buried deep inside of him. It had been replaced by sadness, melancholy and conviction.
The god took the hand of his sister and removed it. Everyone at that moment knew the answer he would give. "I can't sister."
The god looked at the pained face of Hera "I swore to never be like him." he said softly. "If I could change the past, make sure that this present wasn't real, I would but it is impossible. If only you knew how much it hurts to go against my own family again" Poseidon said softly.
"So don't fight against us brother" pleaded Zeus. "We fought so that our family will forever endure. You don't have to do it. I'll do it in your stead. I'll commit the sin of killing directly someone of my blood instead of you doing it. You have to understand that the child is a threat to our kingdom, to our Olympus. Maybe I was wrong when I accused you directly of stealing my lightning bolt but it can only be your child. Ares felt traces of it on him. Let's do what must be done and forget all of this". Zeus was literally begging Poseidon, something shocking for most of the other Olympians but they could never understand Hestia thought.
What they had was probably toxic, unhealthy, something that should not be worth fighting anymore. Like all things, their bond would probably erode one day. Hestia herself was tired and longed to go back to Chaos.
It was only the metaphysical chains pierced into her godly flesh that linked her to her siblings that made Hestia unable to fade.
"I can't" Poseidon whispered. The god had taken back the usual form he showed as an Olympian god. Steel entered the voice of the god "I declare to all Olympus and beyond" the voice of the god boomed".
Athena and Ares had tried to stop Poseidon from making his declaration. In quick and perfectly executed movements, Athena and Ares tried to cut the head of Poseidon from his shoulders to prevent him from speaking.
The air exploded due to the attack of the two gods going faster than the sound. The marble under them exploded as if a giant with his monstrous hand had caved it.
Fragments of marble were sent flying and shone in the air like golden rain. Hera had with a push of her heels got out of the epicenter of the attack.
The sound that was produced at the impact wasn't the ugly and disgusting sound of flesh being torn, of innards falling to the ground. It had instead echoed as if a giant hammer had entered in contact with a mountain of steel.
Poseidon stood proudly between the two gods of war. Both of them had their weapons stopped at the throat of the elder god. Poseidon had not tried to move or block. His skin had just been too hard to penetrate by the war gods.
Athena and Ares's muscles were bulging trying to force their weapons into the flesh of the god of the sea. "It should not be possible" Ares screamed. "Even if you are an elder Olympian, the gap shouldn't be this great".
Athena said nothing. Her skin began to flake off. She had made the same observation as her brother and had decided to directly go to full power.
The sea god sighed like someone that was told they had to throw the trash out. The god of the sea exhaled. His breath was less a breath and more a hurricane. It sent the two gods of war flying. The two gods tore through the remaining marble as if it was butter. They entered into contact with the exterior wall of Olympus that caved under their way. They went through the divine wards put by Hecate around Olympus and in a deafening sound broke through it to continue their fall at high speed toward the mortal world under Olympus.
All the other young Olympians gathered their energy and began to discard their mortal forms.
Poseidon lifted his eyebrow at Zeus. Zeus sighed and turned toward his children "There is no point in fighting. He's not here to fight, he's here to deliver a message," said Zeus. "Say what you have to say Poseidon but know that at the end, all of your actions will be moot. You'll lose. I will gather every resource at my disposal to quench your little rebellion" Proclaimed Zeus to his brother.
"Things have changed brother of mine" Poseidon answered.
The voice of the god boomed "To anyone that wishes to be exempt from the curse, swear your allegiance to me. Swear fealty to the seas, to my blood and you'll be exempt from the curse. Don't suffer like fools."
"That's all I wanted to say. The next time that we'll see each other, it will probably be on the battlefield." Poseidon turned toward the Hearth of Hestia as if he could sense her "I wished it could have been different."
Poseidon began to disappear in drops of water. Only his head remained. It was disappearing slowly. "Siblings of mine. Do you think that in another world, we could have been a true family, one where we are happy?
Hera laughed. Her laugh was broken as if she was trying to not cry "Yes, I'm sure that in another world, we're all happy".
"That world," the disappearing voice of Poseidon said. "I wish it was our reality". The presence of the sea god left Olympus. The divine throne of Poseidon that was on Zeus' side dimmed as if the connection between Poseidon and Olympus had been completely cut.
"Goodbye brother" Zeus whispered. The sky god closed his eyes but a golden tear was able to escape from his eyes. When the god opened back his eyes, they were cold and emotionless.
"Aphrodite," Zeus spoke. "Tell your siblings that anyone that will join will be afforded the benefit of becoming a member of our pantheon".
The Goddess yawned. "Alright bossman" the goddess and she disappeared in a pink flash.
"Dionysus, prepare all the demigods with Chiron to war. Artemis, do the same with your Huntresses".
"Yes Father," both of them answered.
"Hephaestus," Zeus continued. "You now have an unlimited amount of budget and resources. Ask for anything and you shall receive it. Your duty will be to create weapons, weapons specially designed to be used against sea creatures and deities."
"As you wish my king" The crippled god answered before leaving the council room through a portal he made with one of his machines.
The sky god turned toward his youngest remaining son" Hermes, I need you to go check which God is loyal or not to our cause."
"I will do so Father" Hermes answered.
"Apollo" Zeus spoke to his last remaining child "Go inform Ares and Athena that we're officially at war and that they have permission to do everything they see fit to help us win".
"Your will shall be done Father" Apollo said before disappearing in a flash of gold.
Hestia felt burning tears coming from her eyes and blackening and searing the flesh of her face. It should hurt but how could Hestia feel this pain when it couldn't even come close to the pain that Hestia constantly felt due to losing her family? Hestia wished things could be different. Hestia wished that her family was still a family. Hestia wished that all the atrocities she had made for her family were not in vain.
This was one of the three reactions or interludes. Through which characters would you like me to show their point of view?
Chapter 14
I'm going to divide the Kronos interlude into two or three parts because of how long it is. My beta is still not back yet so sorry in advance for the errors. Wrote this chapter while listening to this:
He was born the youngest and the weakest child of the earth mother and the sky father. His siblings and he had been sired by a father that hated them, that despised their existence.
The Titans were he said failures, a shame on the divine pedigree they came from. They were children of primordials and even for mortals, they would have been seen as godlike, for their father, they were weak disappointments.
The sky father had never truly been a father. Kronos wondered if he could have tried to act like one even if Ouranos had wanted.
The Titans have been luckier than their older siblings. They had been deemed acceptable by their primordial father at birth. They hadn't been thrown because of this fact in the stomach of the pit unlike their siblings the Cyclops or the Hecantoncheires.
Living under Ouranos had been torture, one that he would not even wish on his accursed children. Ouranos may have not thrown them in the pit but it didn't mean that he had been kind to them.
They had been more playthings or toys for the primordial than children. Kronos could remember it very well. He could remember the almighty fear that had been a permanent resident of his heart.
He remembered the humiliations, he remembered the laughs, he remembered the pain, so deep and visceral that his mind had to be put back multiple times by his mother.
Maybe it is why of all of his children, Zeus was the one he hated the most. The youngest Kronide had made him relieve his worst memories each time they clashed with his almost identical if not different intensity lightning than the one of his father.
Kronos at that time had seen how his siblings and him suffered and had tried to stop it. He had at the beginning foolishly thought that deep inside the black heart of Ouranos existed a modicum of love and care for the Titans due to the fact that he had not trapped them in Tartarus at birth.
He had gone alone to his father to plead, to beg him to change the way he treated his children.
A smile had blossomed on the celestial face of the primordial. Kronos had thought that it meant that his father understood, wasn't angry at Kronos and would try to change.
He had thought that the sky itself had found in him an ounce of care. Kronos had been wrong. He had been one moment watching the smiling face of his father and at the next moment, Kronos had nearly been undone.
His siblings and his mother were the only reason he survived. His siblings had learnt of what he had planned to do and expecting the worst, they had gone directly to their mother.
The first lightning strike of his father had burned through him and travelled into ichor ravaging and destroying Kronos from the inside. The lightning of Ouranos had almost snuffed out the divine essence, the immortal soul of Kronos.
Kronos had been unable to do anything. He had been scared. He had thought at that moment that he would have met his end and for which reason? Because he had asked for kindness? How was it fair!?
His father was on the point of ending Kronos's existence when his mother interposed herself between the two of them taking the brunt of the attack to protect him.
Kronos didn't remember what happened after because Kronos at that moment between existence and non-existence had become oblivious to the world around him.
He gained back awareness in an underground cave hidden from the sky and surrounded by his siblings that he would learn after had not left his side since the moment he was brought back by Gaia.
They hugged him and called him stupid. They had told him that they would prefer to suffer for eternity than lose their youngest brother.
At that moment, two emotions had bloomed in the youngest of the Uranides. Disgust and anger had bloomed into Kronos.
Kronos had been disgusted by his weakness. He was disgusted by his inability to change things. He was disgusted by the fact that his weakness made his siblings cry and worry.
Kronos had been angry. He had been angry at the world and its unfairness. He had been angry at his father and his cruelty. He had been angry at his mother that was the one that made Ouranos king of the cosmos, that still loved their cruel sire after all of his cruelty towards her children.
She was their mother. A parent's duty should be to protect their children at any cost. Gaea either didn't understand that fact or didn't really care.
Kronos and his siblings continued to live in the entrails of the earth, hidden from the sky, hidden from their cruel father.
Kronos waited. He had been born holding within him time itself, the never-ending clock that sent everything toward a promised end.
Time had taught Kronos something. Everything whether it be flowers, lower creatures, universal laws and even divinities will end one day. The walk towards the end is an inescapable fact of reality. In the end, Time had been and was still whispering to him, 'The only remaining thing will be the primordial chaos that in the end will awaken from his eternal slumber. Death, life, existence, thought, earth, fate, the abyss, and the ocean will all be turned nil.'
Kronos just had to wait and everything he ever wished for would be realized. It had not been wrong.
One day, Gaea, the earth mother got enough of the sky father. The almost unlimited love she had for the other primordial depleted and disappeared one day to be replaced by an emotion Kronos was so deeply familiar with, Hatred.
One day she came to the Uranides angry. She talked with her toxic green eyes of revenge, of justice. She talked of overthrowing. She talked about doing something that had never been done before. She talked of felling down a primordial.
She came to the Titans and asked for their help in her scheme. What she was asking them was madness, it was self-destruction at its best. If the attempt failed, the Titan that had helped would surely have their existence erased by their father.
It was like asking an ant to go against the sun. It was like asking mortals to go against a god. It was foolish.
No Titan had been brave or stupid enough to try to help their mother except one Titan, Kronos himself.
Kronos had been exhausted to love like an insect, underground fearing for his life. Kronos had been exhausted from feeling weak. All things ended and it was the only universal truth.
Kronos told his fearful siblings that he knew that one day, he would meet Chaos but he preferred to do so by being proud and fighting for something he believed than by withering away like a spineless coward.
Shame had bloomed on the faces of his siblings. Oceanus had been the only one to refuse to help in what he called an elaborate suicide. All the Uranides except Oceanus came forward to stand with Kronos before the Earth mother. They had come together in this world and will leave it together if they have to have Lapetus said. Themis had said that she would not forgive herself if she had let one of her siblings be hurt because she was scared. Koios, Hyperion, Kreios(Krios), Iapetus, Kronos Tethys, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoibe (Phoebe), Dione and Theia had walked toward their mother and accepted to be part of what she had in mind to get rid of Ouranos.
Their mother had made two plans to put down her husband. The first one was for her to trick Ouranos, inviting him to lie with her. At that moment, she will shackle the primordial god of the sky. To make sure that he would not free himself too quickly, each of the siblings of Kronos would try to restrain one of the members of the primordial deity. Kronos would be the one to strike against Ouranos.
From the core of the earth, bathed in the blood of Gaia and holding in all her hatred came a scythe. Kronos took the ominous weapon in his left hand. With it, Gaia said that Kronos could come as close as possible to end Ouranos.
A primordial could not be killed unless the domain it embodied was destroyed. What Kronos could do with the scythe was to make sure that Ouranos will take millions of years before he was able to take the shape of anything else than his original body.
"What is the second plan" Mnemosyne had asked their mother.
"She is the second plan" their mother has said. "Come forth, daughter," the earth mother said.
Behind Gaia, she came. For a moment she wasn't there, the next one, she was. She was more like a shade discarding with every moment the natural rules of the world.
Only one word could describe her and it was divine. No, calling her divine was diminishing her magnificence. She had green eyes, the same shade that their mother had. Through them, Kronos could try to discern her true nature behind her mortal mask and see images of monstrous things waiting to be released. Kronos could see through her eyes madness begging to be released. Each nanosecond he was looking at her in the eyes was one Kronos could definitively lose himself.
She was Power, she was everything that Kronos wished to be. Kronos at that moment knew that he wanted her to be his forever.
"Daughter?" Hyperion asked.
"Yes. She's your sister. The difference between her and all of you resides in the fact of the identity of her father. I present to you, Rhea, daughter of Aether". The name being uttered by Gaia had brought for an instant the attention of the Protegenos of the blue ether of the heavens.
It felt as if all the air inside their lungs had been removed. Kronos could feel himself losing his balance. Behind him, his other siblings hadn't been as lucky as him. They had fallen on their knees clawing at their necks. It was becoming harder to think. They didn't need to breathe air to live yet with the utterance of the name of the older god, they had been turned into nothing more than mortals. Kronos had put his right arm on a wall of the gigantic cavern they were in to not fall. The attention of the older deity became disinterested and left them. It had allowed the Titans to be able to breathe again.
All the other Titans except Kronos took a step back from the daughter of Aether. Most of the time, deities didn't react immediately by having their name uttered. In their lessons about the world before given by their mother, saying the name of the protogenoi or other primordial gods had not brought their attention to the Uranides. The way Aether had instantaneously turned toward them implied that the daughter of the protogenoi benefitted from his attention. It meant that Aether cared about Rhea.
There was an order to the world. Ouranos, King of the cosmos stayed king because other primordials like the pit, necessity, depth, night, darkness, Day and Aether, the upper air didn't care about ruling the universe.
The Titans may be like mortals before Ouranos but before the other Primordial except for the earth mother, he fell short painfully in every way possible. Ouranos, the sky father was young and weak before his peers.
"If the first plan fails, Rhea here is the key to making sure that Ouranos is unable to come out unscathed." The Earth mother continued.
"How?" Koios questioned. "Even with her parentage, I don't see how she could by herself chance the scales against the sky Father unless her own father intervened".
Gaia said nothing at first. She walked towards her daughter. She went behind Rhea and hugged her from the back. She closed her eyes and let her head fall on the shoulder of her daughter.
From the shoulder of her daughter, she opened her eerie green eyes that Rhea had inherited and Spoke "Rhea is the second plan because unlike you and other siblings, She is perfect."
Gaia took her right hand and put it on the doll-like face of Rhea "She is as strong if not stronger than all the children I had with the sky. She's more beautiful and radiant than all of her siblings. She doesn't suffer from the difformities of your siblings in the pit or of the weakness of any of you Koios. Your father wasn't wrong calling you weak or your siblings twisted. He was wrong and drew my ire when he was a bad and cruel father when even with all your defaults, he should have loved all of you".
Kronos could feel anger and betrayal flower inside of him. The grip he had on the scythe became harder. He could see the same feelings with sadness etched on the face of his siblings. They had finally the reason why all this time, Gaia had done nothing. She didn't think that what Ouranos thought of them was wrong. She just cared about him hurting them, about him not fulfilling the role of the perfect husband and father that she had expected him to fulfil.
Kronos wanted to scream at her. It was not their fault that they were born weak. If they could, they wouldn't be. If Kronos could have chosen, his siblings and he would have been strong to dethrone their father by themselves. If Kronos had chosen, He would have been strong enough to not be living hidden underground from the sky and the surface world like a rat with his siblings.
Gaia intertwined her right arm with Rhea."Come, Rhea, let's leave until the chosen day".
The two goddesses began to sink into the ground as if it was a liquid. Gaia turned towards them and said "I'll inform you when it's time. Prepare yourselves. Everything could happen. Only Rhea's survival and mine are assured."
The only ones left in the caves were the Titans. Kronos had at that moment gripped tighter his scythe. If it had been a lesser construct, it would have broken under the strength of the Titan.
Ouranos's cruelty, Gaia's apathy, and the unfairness of the world, it has at all been because of Power. Kronos had sworn to himself at that moment that he would do anything to erase this weakness. He would do everything so that the ones seeing him as lesser because of it would never be able to again.
scene*
The day when they'll be facing their cruel father finally came. They acted as if their sense of normality had never been stripped. They acted as if they were not going to commit the heinous sin of patricide.
Was it truly surprising that cruelty and unfairness only brought to this world conflict? Was it truly surprising for the new to raise against the old?
They acted as if they didn't see disapproval in the eyes of their elder sibling because they knew that Oceanus was content with existing and not living. After all, his fear and cowardice were greater than the love he had for them in his heart. They acted as if they didn't go toward their annihilation because what was the point of fearing the end when you'll meet on your own terms?
The walk toward destruction was an endless one but Kronos and his siblings instead of trying to evade the inescapable will go towards it.
They left the cave behind them, the cave that had been both their prison and their home. It was them leaving a meek existence to reach for more.
They let themselves contemplate the world in comfortable silence. The beauty of the earth and its mountains. The sound of life and the light of Hemera shone gold on them as if to welcome them.
Kronos turned towards his siblings "You all can still go back to hide with Oceanus. It is not too late" the youngest Uranide spoke.
"We already told you Kronos" Hyperion began. "We came together in this world" continued Lapetus "and we'll leave it together" finished his older sister Themis.
All the rest of his siblings nodded to the words of their three siblings. A smile bloomed involuntarily on the face of Kronos. "We're truly fools". The deity turned away from the beauty of the world to gaze at his siblings. The world may have been beautiful but for Kronos, its beauty was insignificant before his siblings. He wanted the last image to be engraved in his mind to be them. "If we fail, I want all of you to know that you made this wretched existence supportable, worth fighting for".
"You had never been the kind of person to communicate your feelings," said in a teasing way his older sister Tethys. "You're beautiful when you smile and show your true self."
She came close to him and hugged him. "It's just a shame that it is maybe the last time we see your smile."
He hugged her back "It won't be the last one, I promise you this sister. Have I ever lied to any of you?" he asked her?
"No, but you're full of tricks and cunning" she answered. She leaned harder into the hug.
"Why are you all staying away," Tethys said to their siblings. Gigantic hands of water busted from her back. Each one went to grab one of the siblings. With their targets in hand, they came back to their master.
"You're too sentimental sister," Koios said in the makeshift family hug created by Tethys.
"It may be true" Tethys answered "but none of you tried to free themselves when they easily could have done so".
Koios grumbled but said nothing. Their family embrace was ended by a growl of the earth, by an earthquake. They turned toward each other and nodded. It was the signal of their mother. They all knew what it indicated. The sky father had left the heavens to lie with Gaia the earth mother.
Over them, the sky itself left his immutable place in the heavens and began to move toward the earth. Most mortal creatures that had not taken refuge underground would die crushed between the contact of the sky and the earth.
The primordial was unaware of the plan dressed against him. Ouranos would not expect to be attacked.
With a movement of his wrist, Kronos bent the material world and its space dimension. He put his siblings in the corner of the world, at the edge of Khaos' body. Kronos had inherited from his mother a greater dominion over the earth than his siblings but what made him unique, and special was his dominion over time.
He had been given his name in honour of the primordial that presided over time. Time and space were two linked dimensions. It could even be said that they were the same thing. They could have taken their true forms and disregarded the rules of the world to reach the emplacement they were supposed to be to make the plan work but it would have probably alerted Ouranos of their presence, something they didn't need.
Instead, Kronos had sped up the time that would be taken them to each reach they should be at. By almost making the time of their travel null, Kronos through the rules that govern the material world crossed the distance, the space between their original location to where they were supposed to go.
His siblings were at the corners of the world waiting for the signal of their mother. Kronos was at the place where the two primordial will collide first to copulate. He had taken the shape of a pebble to not be seen by his father
The Earth and the sky collided creating a nightmare-ish sound. The world screamed in agony. Living mortal creatures died and lesser immortals that hadn't been able to hide suffered in agony crushed under the weight of the sky.
A continent in the shape of a hand wrapped itself around the neck of the sky father. From the Earth, thousands of gigantic adamantine chains thicker than mountains went around the body of the sky father to ensnare him.
"Gaia, what are you doing" the primordial voice boomed. The voice of the sky destroyed the nature around them. The ground cave out. Flowers withered. A shockwave erupted from his words sending flying everything around him.
"Making you pay" the Earth mother answered before screaming at her children "Do it now"
From the four corners of the world, the siblings of Kronos took their true shapes. Even at the edges of the world, Kronos could see his siblings. Even though they were not naturally as gigantic as their parents, it didn't mean that they were small. Even Kronos, the shortest amongst his siblings was in his true form and without shapeshifting towering over the highest mountains that stopped at his knees.
Lapetus was on the west side of the world. In his hand materialized a spear even bigger than him. The spear in his hand began to turn dark red. From it, Kronos could hear screams of suffering, of pain. "Let me give you your cornepussance Father" The voice of Lapetus boomed. "Take all the pain, take all the suffering you created a hundredfold" he screamed before plunging his spear with savagery into one of the feet of their father".
The sky father roared in agony. "I hope you've prepared yourself, Father" screamed the gigantic form of Mnemosyne. The deity began to draw on the air as if it was solid inscriptions. More than being inscriptions, they felt arcane to Kronos. They oozed power. The eyes of Kronos continued to analyze them. They were foci, intermediaries to bend the rule of the world through what they described and told. Mnemosyne had found a way to breach into domains she shouldn't be having access to. It was genius.
The letters flew around the spear of Lapetus before they each began to integrate themselves into it. The spear began to glow brighter. Arcs of red energy flickered around it. The spear of Lapetus went further into the primordial god's leg.
"Stop it! stop it!" begged the primordial. "How dare you? I'm your father." The primordial god tried to escape by using his other feet to kick his treacherous children.
He failed to free himself. Dione and Themis were there to stop his attempt. "Not on my watch!" Dione said. From her back erupted white wings. The wings began to grow until they were the same size as the member of Ouranos. The wings feather began to fall like an endless rain on Ouranos leg nailing it. Themis to help her sister directed her fingers to the legs of the god. "The world and I find you guilty of cruelty," the older sister of Kronos said. Before her fingers materialized silvers chains with blades on their end. They rushed towards the pinned foot. They penetrated through it, came out of the other side and enrolled themselves around it.
"You too," said the primordial in agony. "Did all of you betray me?"
"You were the first to do so when you hurt one of us" spoke Themis.
"Don't think it's finished Ouranos, it's just the beginning," said Theia. She turned toward her brother Hyperion. "Let's make him suffer." Her brother nodded. Golden flames erupted from both of them. It tore through the dark emptiness that made the sleeping body of Khaos. It was as if a second sun had been created. The pillar of fire twisted as if alive and changed its course. It took the shape of a giant sword and came back vengeful toward the trapped primordial right hand to pin it down.
The primordial screamed in agony. "Can't you shut up?" spoke Koios annoyed. From the Uranide, frost and cold began to creep into the real world. It creaked and cracked like broken bones. The cold created by his brother surged forward toward the mouth of the primordial god of the sky. It entered his mouth. "Maybe that will make shut up," the brother of Kronos said before cracking his left thumb. Gigantic and sharp stalagmites pierced through the inside of the mouth of the primordial. It pierced through his tongue, through the soft inner parts of his mouth.
"You created such a beautiful sight brother, but it can be improved" Phoebe spoke. Light began to twist and distort around her right hand. "It is said that the sky has a night omniscient vision. Let's see dear Father if it stays the same after that". Unbelievably hot wisps of light that even Kronos from his hiding spot half a world away from the location of his sister could feel went just right under the eyes of his father, burrowed through his skin, twisted and went through the back of the sclera of the primordial. The eyes of the primordial exploded in golden mush. "Something interesting" his sister continued " is that due to our natures as divine beings, we don't stop regenerating. I learnt that through you. I'm grateful. I know that you can feel my light under your flesh. I gave it one command, to destroy your eyes again and again for all eternity. Normally it wouldn't have worked but you're trapped, Father thanks to Mother and my siblings." The daughter leaned toward one of the ears of her father and whispered, "I hope it hurts, I hope you feel helpless, I hope you feel weak like you always made us feel".
Ouranos screamed in agony. He tried to speak maybe to curse his children or to beg but the ice spikes in his mouth made him unable to talk. "I always dreamt of doing this. Thanks, Mother. Without you, it would not have been possible."
"Don't thank me. I'm the best mother after all. I give only the best gifts to my children." the voice of Gaia rumbled.
"He still got a free hand," said Krios. Vines began to erupt around him and raised toward the sky father. "Let's make sure he doesn't escape." Lianas and thorns began to wrap themselves around the wrist of the remaining hand. They began to tighten into the flesh of the primordial. Golden ichor began to fall as a waterfall from his wrist but Krios continued to tighten his grip over their father.
A gigantic hand of water as big as the body of Ouranos obscured the Earth from the rays of the sun. "I just want this to end," said Tethys. The giant of water that she had created exploded and rained on the body of the primordial. The raindrops that fell into the body of Ouranos penetrated his divine flesh. "Let me show you the results of your teaching Father. I had once been before the birth of Phoebe and Kronos the target of your wrath. I didn't and still don't understand why your ire had been directed at me but at that moment, I had instinctively tried to protect myself. I created an armour of saltwater just over my skin. I could have and should have materialized pure water but I panicked and didn't. Your lightning tore through my shield, flayed me open and put into my self-regenerative skin half liquid and half gaseous salt. It is a sensation I will never forget. You taught me suffering. Let me give you back the teachings you gave me".
The Giant primordial tried to move but failed to do so. His screams were muted due to the torture he was subjected to by one of his sons. "You know" the Uranide continued. "Salt at high temperatures turns liquid and at greater heat, it can boil. Don't worry Father, your suffering won't end. I made sure that the temperature of the salt in your body rise endlessly without boiling. I know that you can feel it under your skin as if ants were crawling and spewing fire into it, I hope you like this gift of mine".
"Kronos, it is the perfect moment. Do it now" screamed Gaia to her youngest son.
Kronos didn't need to be told twice. He shifted to his true form immediately. He gripped the scythe tightly and with a swing sped up almost infinitely by his domain directed the scythe toward the neck of his sire.
The adamant Scythe entered contact with the neck of the trapped primordial. It bit into his flesh, found resistance but continued his journey to the other side of the neck of Ouranos. Kronos had almost succeeded when what they feared happened.
Ouranos found a way to free himself. With a scream, the primordial broke through his restraints. The primordial god retreated into the heavens away from Gaia's touch.
The sky father looked incensed beyond reason. He looked mad. The stalagmites in his mouth were turned to nothing. One of his had been able to regenerate. The injuries he received from punishments that had been inflicted on him to nail him down were mending. The only thing that didn't seem to be healing was the cut created by the scythe of Kronos. "You, you wretched insects. You dared hurt me," the primordial god screamed. He lifted his right hand over his head. In his empty palm began to materialize tendrils that were reddish-orange coloured at their top and blue at their bottom. A reddish Halo took shape in the space between Gaia and the Sky Father.
"Be erased forever from my kingdom, ungrateful insects" the primordial screamed before sending his attack toward Gaia's body.
Kronos and his siblings each tried to stop the attack. Kronos tried to trap it in a movement-less space but the attack broke through it. His siblings tried to stop it by making a giant dome of white fire and time-stopping Frost. It failed. Mnemosyne and Phoebe tried to erect together a giant iron shield to protect Gaia but it pierced through it.
Nothing the Uranides had tried to do to stop the attack worked. It was pretty clear that they failed and they would have their existence erased by their Father. Kronos should have done the smart thing. He should have given up but thinking about going such a thing sickened him. He looked at the fearful faces of his siblings, at the despair etched on them and gripped his scythe.
With a jump that pulverized the earth around him, Kronos sent himself flying toward the attack of his father. "Kronos!?" screamed his siblings. He covered the scythe with his divinity. He would never stop fighting. He will never let himself be crushed by the world again without fighting.
The heat of the attack reached Kronos. It felt unsupportable. Even Hyperion at his best would not be able to produce such heat. Kronos knew that this attack reaching him meant destruction yet fearlessly, he swang with all of his might the scythe. It entered into contact with the scythe of Kronos and set it and Kronos in flames. Kronos bit his tongue to not let out a scream.
From his back, he grew 6 pairs of wings that immediately were ignited. He ignored the pain and tried to push back the attack. It didn't seem to work but Kronos continued. Kronos being erased didn't matter. He was the youngest and the weakest of his siblings. He wasn't as talented or strong or smart as them but they still loved him and never been cruel to him. They had been the main reason why Kronos hadn't tried to end himself. His hatred toward Ouranos and his siblings were two of the main reasons why Kronos had accepted to be a part of the plan of their mother.
Kronos' existence never truly mattered to the world. It only mattered to his siblings and this was why he could not even at what seemed to be his obvious end give up. Kronos could feel his divine essence fizzling out almost a dying flame. He closed his eyes"Let the story of Kronos end," Kronos prayed mentally to whatever superior could hear him "but please, make sure my siblings survive".
Kronos began to lose his grip over his scythe. The flesh of Kronos had been consumed completely to leave behind bones that were bending and being reduced to embers each second.
At the moment Kronos thought it would be his end, the weight and the heat of the attack lessened. They were still present but they were diminished. Kronos turned around him to see all of his siblings except Oceanus trying to push away the attack. "Why? I have given you enough time to leave Gaia, to try to escape. Now, we're surely going to die". Whispered Kronos.
"You thought that we would let you be consumed without intervening?" screamed Hyperion. "You truly are stupid" continued Krios. "We came together in this world and we will leave it together" finished Tethys.
"If you want us to live," screamed Mnemosyne "stop trying to throw your life away. Stop being selfish. How could you imagine us living after letting our little brother die to protect us?".
"Live for us and we'll live for you" shouted Themis.
"Let's do the impossible" yelled Phoebe. "Let's give it back to our Father".
Kronos turned toward his siblings and saw them nod. He began to laugh maybe because of the pain maybe because of the situation. He wondered how he looked. He probably did look like one of the monstrous creatures that had as abode the deepest part of Tartarus.
"Let's do it". Kronos yelled.
"Yes," his siblings screamed back.
With all their might the Uranides began to try to push back against the lightning attack of their father. They pushed in synchronization with all their might.
At first, it seemed as if nothing happened but little by little, the attack began to slow down. "Don't even think about doing that my accursed children," Spoke the sky father. From his hand surged a hurricane that began to push the attack even faster against his children.
A Continent in the shape of a hand began to help the Uranides "Don't you forget me." the voice of Gaia boomed.
"It seemed one wasn't enough" the voice of the primordial god of the sky echoed. "Let's see how you deal with another gigantic blue sprite".
Another one began to materialize in his hand. Kronos turned towards his siblings. "If we're lucky enough to one day live again on another form, I hope to be your brother again."
"Me too," Hyperion said.
Words of confirmation came from his siblings. They turned towards their father. The deity attack had completely materialized and as if it was a spear, the god threw it at the Uranides and Gaia.
It was at that moment that she came. With her left leg, she kicked Ouranos in the face and with a twist of her leg sent him flying into Khaos' body.
She materialized a giant sword in one of her hands. With a nonchalant flick of her wrist, it was sent flying toward the two attacks of the primordial god. It flew and speared through them making them lose their shape and explode without causing any damage to the Uranides. The sword continued to fly into Gaia until it came out to the other side of the earth before continuing without stopping to go forward.
She flew with green and blue colourful wings close to them. "Sorry Mother. I had forgotten it was today but now, you can all rest." She turned toward the empty space that was occupied by the sky. "Because" Rhea continued softly "I am now here".
Little question. What do y'all think is the classement of strength between the primordials in my story?
Chapter 15
I've decided to now write using the first perspective instead of the third. Hope you like it. Thanks to my beta Cam Katarn
The words of Rhea had brought with their author hope. Rhea had come at the moment when it seemed everything was lost and she had in less than an instant rebalanced the scales.
"You have come at the best moment possible daughter" the voice of Gaia, the Earth Mother rumbled like an earthquake.
"Would I be wrong to say the first plan failed?" asked Rhea to the Uranides and Gaia.
"It is unfortunately the case" answered Phoebe. "However, Kronos had been able to almost sever the head of Ouranos. Unfortunately, our sire had been able to escape from his bindings."
Rhea sighed. "I just wanted to stay with my Father all this Gaia cycle But it's fine. It is what it is. I just hope that Father won't eat all the stars without me."
She peered at the cosmos for a moment and hummed. Satisfied to have found what she wanted to find, she turned towards the children of Ouranos. "I saw a wound on his neck. He's trying to close it like all the other injuries he has received from you but due to the frown on his face, it's clear that this is not going as smoothly as he would want it to be. He's vulnerable. It is now or never if we want to succeed. If we fail, I'm not sure that I can win against Ouranos at full power."
She extended fully her wings. "I'll distract him. Your role is to cut down Ouranos with your scythe youngest of the Uranides."
"I have a name," I said to Rhea. "It is Kronos."
"You were given a powerful name." a smile bloomed on the face of Rhea. "Prove your worthiness and I'll use it." With a lazy flap of her wings, she disappeared. I could see that With a flap of her wing, she had already crossed the distance of at least a hundred spans of Gaia. With another, she would be in front of the Primordial sky god.
Our mother presented her gigantic hand before them. "I'll throw all of you in the direction of Ouranos. It'll make you reach him quickly without using your energy. I'll come after you," said Gaia.
My siblings and I turned towards each other and nodded. I hopped in the palm of the hand of his mother. I was immediately joined by his siblings.
"Prepare yourselves" The voice of our mother boomed. Gaia bent her arm backwards. In a clockwise movement, she sent us flying in the direction of their enemy.
Ahead of us, Rhea had already begun to confront Ouranos. The two deities clashed against each other. A frown marred the face of Rhea. Anger and fear were etched on the face of our father. It was the look of a scared predator animal facing another one of similar strength.
Even from a distance greater than the span of the Earth, I could hear the words coming from my father's mouth "You reek of the scent of the celestial air yet I can also sense in you the smell of Gaia and can see your resemblance to her. Does your father plot to overthrow me, young one?" the primordial of the sky asked to Rhea.
With a snap of her fingers, the hair of Rhea became braided as if done by invisible beings. "My father is not interested in your pitiful throne. He doesn't need to be recognized as supreme. Power is something rough… , real Ouranos. Titles, names, and thrones mean nothing before it. Unfortunately, you lack it. You are simply… weak." Rhea replied softly.
"Weak you say, child," Ouranos said. A snarl appeared on his face. He put both of his hands over his head. Light began to illuminate the dark tapestry that made the body of Khaos. The light fell like a stream on Ouranos and obscured him. A hand erupted from it. Gradually, the body of Ouranos began visible again. The primordial was now wearing beautifully crafted armour.
Pauldrons adorned his shoulders. A golden helmet hid his face from the world. The armour covered his stomach, his legs and his arms. The armour was also adorned with images of air disasters, clouds and multiple suns.
The Primordial god put his left hand forward and opened his palm as if trying to grab something. The primordial hand closed and with it, space broke. In the hand of the primordial was a black spear. The spear felt ominous, dreadful. Rhea who had all this time a lazy air around her since the beginning of the fight for the first time changed her posture from a relaxed one to a tense one.
My siblings and I finally crossed the distance between us and Rhea. Rhea put her hand on her side to stop us. "Don't go closer to your father if any of you want to live".
"You told me that I was weak, spawn of the Upper air. Let me present your flesh with the touch of Khaos. Let me show you the errors in your assessment."
The primordial in a swift movement lunged toward the daughter of Gaia. He pushed the spear towards the head of the daughter of Aether. She leaned her head towards the left and dodged the strike. The primordial continued his assault with a horizontal strike.
As if she was swimming, Rhea rolled over the strike Then she came twisting back around with a hammer she had materialized and struck the armour of the Primordial sending him soaring.
A moment later, our father was sent flying but in the next one, he was back in front of Rhea and tried to punch her. The hammer she had made shifted to become a shield. The collision between the punch and the shield of the two opponents sent my siblings helplessly flying back as if were were insects.
With a flick of my will, I bent the space separating my siblings and myself. With a thought, I erased their momentum.
Light years away from us, our father and Rhea continued to fight. Ouranos struck Rhea's right cheek and sent her flying. He tried to bridge the distance between them but was unable to do so. A ball of dust materialized in front of Rhea's palm. It grew quickly to match the size of the body of their mother. With a grunt, she sent it flying towards the Primordial.
The primordial with his black spear barreled through the newly created planetoid. The middle of the planetoid disappeared with its core. The spear had erased everything it had entered in contact with.
Behind the figure of the primordial, the planetoid lost its shape and exploded. "Was that supposed to do anything child" spoke the Primordial God.
Rhea answered his question by rushing to Ouranos with a sword made of purple plasma. The primordial God lifted one of his eyebrows and put his lance on the trajectory of the attack to stop it.
Millimetres away from the spear, the sword shifted and turned into thousands of microscopic needles. They quickly struck the armour of the Primordial.
A shock wave erupted from the impact. The wings of Dione expanded to cover all of us in a protective embrace. The impact tore through the wings making them look unrecognizable, The wings having lost all their feathers with only twisted bones remaining from the back of the female deity. With a grunt, Dione grabbed her wings and tore them from her back.
Golden ichor began to fall as a stream. The bloodied back of my sister began to heal as if time was being reverted. New wings sturdier-looking exploded from her back.
"We have to help Rhea but how can we when the two of them are so beyond us," said Hyperion. In the shadowy body of Khaos, Rhea and Ouranos continued to clash.
To my eyes, they were less shapes and more blurs of lights that illuminated the universe. Even by using my domain, I found it hard to follow the clashes between my half-sister and the primordial god of the sky.
"You would be right that we would be unable to do anything if it wasn't for one thing Hyperion" spoke Mnemosyne.
"I don't understand you sister," said Hyperion. We all turned toward her to pay attention to the words that would come out of Mnemosyne. "None of them has taken their true form and that's also the case with us. At full power, there is no possibility of us even trying to help but right now, we can if we go to full power".
"If I'm following you, sister" spoke Tethys, "you want us to take our true forms to help tip the balance in our favour".
"It sounds logical enough," said Krios "but the problem with this plan is that if we're not fast enough, Ouranos will also reveal his true form and it would be without a doubt our defeat."
"It just means one thing," I told my siblings. "It means that we can not afford to fail. We've already tested our luck. I don't think that necessity would favour us again. It is now or never".
My siblings and I exchanged nods. I stopped focusing for a nanosecond on the exterior world and turned his sight inward.
I let his mind guide me to the door that connected me to Time itself. The door was a gigantic one, bigger at least two times than my parents united. Each instant that passed was one that changed the appearance of the door. One moment, the door displayed a giant white metallic structure soaring in Ouranos's domain, in another one, it showed me grotesque beings that revelled in blood, ichor, viscera and other unmentionable things. The door changed again to show an image of myself. My siblings and I were sitting on thrones made of Orichalcum and obsidian. Adorning our heads were crowns exquisitely made, crowns that could only be called sinful because of their allure.
Before the thrones of my siblings and I kneeled all the creatures of the realms. They praised them, they worshipped them, they sang their names.
The Kronos in the image stopped focusing on the worshipping crowd and turned his head in my direction as if he could see a younger him as if he could see me.
The image passed to be replaced by another one, one that I didn't pay attention to. I had honestly never truly loved discarding my mortal form for his immortal one, for my true form.
The door was a barrier that stopped Time's influence on me. Taking my true form felt as if losing my identity, as if the things that made me truly Kronod disappeared. The whispers of time were a constant from me, something that had plagued me all of my existence and that would probably continue until my end.
The thing was that at least in a mortal form, The whispers were at their lowest in my mortal form. That fact changed when I took my true form.
None of my siblings understood my plight. My mother had called me lucky but if this was luck, I feared mischance because the world had never been kind to me, because it had always sent me misfortune and the worst plights.
I touched the gigantic door with my palm. "You might lose yourself forever" a dark spectre of the same shape as I spoke behind me.
"I know this," I replied.
"Aren't you frightened," my reflection asked me.
"I am always scared. I am scared of the past, of pain, of the future and of many things" I replied.
"Then why are you doing this" questioned the shadow. "You could flee, go to him. You know that he would claim you, that he would you make his child. No one would be able to hurt you."
"You're right," I said to my dark reflection "but do you want to know something? My greatest fear is losing them". The gate began to display an image. It was the image of an injured me being cried on and protected by my siblings. It was the image of the reason why I shouldered on even though I was afraid.
With a push, the gate opened and I S̸̡̨̧̢̛͇͎̲͕̺̥̯̣̝̗̻̜͔̝̬̮͎͚͎͚̝̲̱̖̭̖̖͇̲̣̼͖͍͇̜̼̩̣̬̦͇̾̇̏̃́̒͊̊͋̍̉̄̈́̈́͊̇̔̕ͅȧ̴̧̳̙̤͓̲͎͈̮̗͎͈̭̩͚̻͖̯͙͍̺͍̬̟͓̬̳̞̜̩͑̄̃̆͆̔̈́̆͐͝͝w̷̡̢̨̻͚̖͎͚̺̪̫̘͓͈̟̦̟̥̓̉̃̾̀͗̉͊̽́̉̉̑͒̎̔̊̓͗͛̾̈́̅͑̎͘̚͜͝͝͝͝͠ͅ ̸̧̢̛̱̪͓̗̩̘̳̣̻̺̫̼̺͎̱̯͈̟̯̆͛̄̓̈̓̃́̔̇̐̀̃̊̃̓̓̅́̓̓͂̔̾́͐͂́͊͐̒̉̾̊̉͌͐̇̽̚̕̚̕̚̕͝͠ͅĕ̴̡̛̛̺͉̦̻̠̟̩̰̯̖͇̹̦̘͙̩͍͔̳̝̙͕̣̝͕̜̳̪̲̪̳̩͕̪̩͇̤̻͖̲̹̗̥̘̭̾̑͑̿͂̋̔͊̄̅̇̈͐͑̀̈́̾̔̎̋͗͒̾̈́̔͊̓̈́̕̚͜v̸̨̔̊͑͐͌̈́͆̔̋̎̈̄́̂́͌̎̑̐̅͒̌͗͒̈̏͘̚͠͝ȩ̷̡̭̥̳̺̫͕͖̣̬̮̩̗̗͔͚͖̝̙̓̍͐́͜͜ͅr̶̨̼̝̹̰̮̻̱̭̘̳͚̙̙͒̎̽̂̒̂̓̉̏͑̈́́͊͆̄͌̈́́̿̊̇̓͐̿́̋̉̈́͗͊̕͘͝ͅȳ̶̨̧̧͙̬̣̪̯͙͍͔̪͔͈̱͉̦͖̟͉͖̱̙̙̟̤͓̲̖͔̰̼̳̹̭̒̉̎̈́̽̈́̈́͋̀̀͋̐̈̍̐͋̒̔͌̈́̋̈́̓͘͜͝͝͝t̶̨̢̨̡̛̛̩͖̟̝͖̫̳͉͚̣̯̠̹̩͕̳͖̯̖̱̤̮͎͇̦̱̯͕̯̲̙͇́̋̂̽͋̋͆͛̓́͛̋̀̂̂́̔͐̂̿̇̏̌̈̊̇́̄́̉̂́̆̀̑͘͘̕̕͜h̶̢̢̢̧̫̗̙͇̫̮̞̯̞̱̖͍̘͖͔͇̦̫͇̩͕̪̥̤̫͖͇͇̼̖̝̭̞̭̰̩͉̗̠̜̗̙̰̆́́̔̐ͅͅi̷̧̧̛͇̘̲͕̎̋̆̿̇̆͗̋̈́̿̉̑̅̄̾͋̏̒͒̅̐̍̾͗̅̏́̆͂̑̆̒͐̑́̃̇̈͒͒̌̂̀̕̚͝n̵̛̛̯̤͇̠͖̲̍̔͛̅̈̎̇̒͑̆̓̄͋͆̑͋͗̾̍̿̈̉̇̉̑̀̽͌͛͐̊͂̓́̈́̈̇̊͊̊͛͛̅̓͘͝ͅģ̵̛̫̠̥̰̯̫̘͎̫̣̗͔̰͍̝̻͉͖̜̤͚̦̘̠̠̻͒̐͆̋̑̅̉̍͂̈́͗̍̿̋͆͘ ̵̙̻̻̪̳͈̲͈̬̪̗̘̼̝͕͈̩͚̭̗̇͑̀͒̂̑͆̏̐̌͆̈̃͂̓̕̚͝͝ͅ. I opened my eyes back to the real world. I knew at that moment everything. I had plunged into the abyss and the abyss had claimed a part of me. Like a cancer, it grew inside of me trying to erase the deity named Kronos.
I clenched my teeth. With a movement, he appeared before my sire. The primordial tried to skewer me with his spear. The spear went through me as if I was a mirage. I slashed in the direction of the head of my father trying to behead him. The primordial put his armoured hand on the path of the attack maybe to block it or deflect it.
The scythe went through the armoured arm as if it were butter. The severed hand of the Primordial began to shine blue before expanding in a conflagration. With my free hand, I trapped the explosion in a bubble of non-existent time neutralizing the attack.
The Primordial enraged sent a kick adorned by Plasma to my face but I didn't try to dodge. I knew what would happen and knew that I had nothing to fear.
Plasma met ice and was found wanting. Rhea didn't stay idle. With her powerful hammer, she tried to strike against Ouranos's head. The Primordial used his remaining to protect himself.
A shock wave erupted and a deafening sound was produced but the Primordial didn't budge. I let my future sight guide me to go on the left. It allowed Mnemosyne, Themis and Theia to strike perfectly synchronized at the same moment on the back of the hammer of Rhea.
It pushed the hammer forward. The hammer broke the primordial hand and struck his face so hard and fast that the space and all the atoms surrounding them split themselves turning the space around us into Plasma and creating a heat a thousand times worse than the core of the sun.
Hyperion appeared in my gaze as a gigantic flame of ichor bleeding eyeballs and light. I didn't let my sight linger on his sibling. Immortals' true forms were by themselves stories, mysteries that when gazed upon taught something to the individual whether they wanted to know or not.
The thing was that some things were not meant to be seen or understood. A mortal creature could break their soul by Gazing at my true form. Gazing at Ouranos's true form would create the same effect for us, Uranides maybe except for me because of my link with time. In case a mortal was unfortunate enough to gaze at the true form of one of the Protogenoi, they would be erased completely from existence.
All the energy, the heat that had been created by the hammer was reunited in a ball of hellfire in one of Hyperion's eyes.
A powerful sound akin to swords raking on each other was produced by Hyperion. Hyperion sent all the reunited energy in a powerful searing blast at their flying sire.
The broken arm of the primordial twisted in a counterclockwise way to settle anew, perfectly regenerated. With a flick of one of his fingers, the primordial sent a beam of powerful cosmic winds to match the attack of his child.
The two attacks met and detonated together creating an omnidirectional purple shock wave. Krios at my side inhaled and exhaled a cold wind. Our father had been pushed light years away from Gaia's body and the sun that shone on her. Frost and ice surged forward in a gigantic wave. I could see with my eyes the death of every particle and atom that entered into contact with the deathly cold of my brother.
More than only affecting the physical world, Krios's ice was also trapping the time of the areas it encountered. Krios was manipulating time, stopping it.
The wave of visible frost touched the purple detonation and froze it in its wake. It continued towards our father disregarding concepts like space or distance who with a swap of his hand created a powerful gust of wind that deflected the attack to send it flying out at another solar system to enter in contact with a faraway red sun. The ice met the sun and the light died, completely extinguished.
Even light years away from my sire, I saw the Primordial put his fingers before him to inspect them. Even though he hadn't been touched, his proximity to the attack had turned the armour covering his hand brittle and had left the armour broken. One of his fingers had turned black. The primordial raised his other newly healed arm and with it, he grabbed the finger and broke it in a loud snap. He tore it from his hands completely. Another one, untouched and healthy grew to take the place of the missing one.
His gaze swept over us. Even though he was light years away from us, it felt as if he was just meters away "You and your siblings since the beginning have just been mere annoyances that I would deal with after but now, you are not mere annoyances anymore. You are now obstacles. You are weak gods straining yourself to reach something that none of you could, you all are sinners and that is what I declare you Titans, Sinners" the primordial hissed.
The skin of the primordial god began to flake off. I knew what it meant. I turned towards my siblings and the ever-flowing numbness that was consuming me since taking my true form was replaced by warmth. I could feel myself smile. With a flicker of my will, time began to shift and break around me. A gate, the gate that laid in in my mind surfaced in the real world and opened. Black oozy tendrils flew from it each to grab one of his siblings.
"Don't do it, don't you dare!" screeched Koios. He was trying to free himself. He didn't need to be explained anything to know what my intention was.
All of my other siblings were doing the same. "You promised!" screamed Themys. The tendrils had brought my siblings into the gate. I acted as if I didn't see their tears, their screams, their pleas.
The gate closed and disappeared with my siblings. "It is true that I promised" I said to the empty space that was occupied by the gate "but I'm a coward and a liar. I prefer you hating me over any of you being gone. Loving somebody is being ready to be hated by them even if what you do is for their sake".
Rhea was looking at me as if she was seeing me for the first time. The Primordial was far away from us shedding his mortal mask to reveal to the world his true nature.
"You are interesting. I might have been wrong about you." Rhea told me. "If we win, I wouldn't be averse to trying to know you more so Let's win Kronos," she had told me.
I felt my lips upturned a little in a half smile. "Let's win Rhea".
Far away from us, the Primordial was shining as brightly as a supernova. His light was blinding but Rhea and I didn't turn away.
The light disappeared to show the monstrous true form of Ouranos. His body was at least 100 times longer than the distance between the sun of Gaia and other suns. He looked like a star.
Examining him more, I found in the centre of his body a pulsing sphere, a heart made of Khaos bigger than a sun. This heart was surrounded by what seemed to be light-producing structures. Visible and invisible light came from the glowing disk of infalling material, while what seemed to be even hotter gas above the disk shone with mystical energies that like waves swept over Kronos and Rhea.
Despair and fear almost took hold of my mind. They would probably have if my emotions were not consumed by time. Watching the true form of my father, I did only one thing. I gripped more tightly my scythe.
Focusing more on the shape of my father and ignoring the splitting agony that tried to take hold of my mind, I noticed something important that I had missed before. It was microscopic but it was indeed there. There was a crack in the heart of Ouranos. It was a crack the size of a hill but when plastered on something bigger than the sun, it was almost invisible.
It was an injury that hadn't healed completely even though Ouranos had taken his true shape. I looked at my scythe. I knew without a doubt what was the origin of the injury. It was an opportunity. Something told me that striking at the exact place where resided the crack was the sure way to claim victory over my sire.
"Kronos" Rhea called me bringing me back to reality and out of my head. I turned towards her. She was shining brightly. Light was coalescing all around her and her skin had begun to flake like a reptile. "You only have one task and it is ending Ouranos. I'll create an opportunity. Don't worry about anything else".
"Alright," I answered.
"It's time for this farce to end," said Rhea. Her skin began to bulge as if something was trying to claw out of it. Light busted from her back. With it, Rhea began to lose her mortal disguise to reveal her true self.
Rhea was mind-bogglingly big, spanning several light years in size I estimated. She looked like a gigantic cloud made of Stardust with many suns and nebulas, with where there should have been eyes I could instead stars as big as the sun that shone on Gaia took birth. The stars inside of her glowed different colours taking the appearance of colours seen and unseen by mortals and immortals eyes. She was fluorescent due to the hot stars embedded in her form.
She looked unfathomable, incomprehensible, she looked more beautiful than everything I had ever seen. Looking at her was maddening. Things would never be as bright or vibrant as they were after I saw her true form. By looking at her, I learned. I knew now ways to use the powers I inherited from my sire that I wasn't even sure the Primordial himself knew. Knowledge, forbidden knowledge had been embedded in my brain. It felt as if a haze that was always there had been partially lifted. The body of Khaos which had looked like a dark void now looked in my gaze like fleshy dark sinews that beat to an invisible rhythm that I could not hear. I felt a drop of Ichor stream from his right eye. I wiped it away.
Even with what seemed to be a lack of eyes, I felt the gaze of Rhea on myself. A throne made of blue stars grew from Rhea's body. I didn't try to ask the reason why or to protest because even though, I didn't really know Rhea, I felt even in my numb state at ease with her.
I sat on the throne. I felt the gaze of Rhea leave me to veer towards Ouranos. The two deities looked at each other and to a signal only they could hear, they threw themselves at each other with mind-boggling savagery and violence.
They erased the distance between them and they clashed. They shook the body of Khaos. Stars were birthed and died as they collided.
A massive beam of energy was released by Ouranos toward Rhea. She spun like a spiral way faster than something her mass and length should be moving and dodging. The beam continued meeting one of the millions of internal creatures composing Khaos 'black holes,' the knowledge I had gained from seeing Rhea's true form whispered to me and broke it making it lose its shape and collapse in a world extinction display.
Rhea produced from her form gigantic structures of plasma and sent them flying like arrows to the Primordial. They met the shape of the primordial and instead of hurting him flew into his body where they were exposed to Ouranos's influence, changed and sent back to their original creator.
They impacted Rhea's form and Rhea in pain screamed. The scream acted more like an attack than a sign of distress and anguish.
The body of the primordial was catapulted away from them. The primordial who had made Rhea bleed. She was not bleeding golden like my siblings and I did. Rhea instead bled celestial bodies, stars. From her wounds came life.
"Kronos, listen to me" I heard the voice of Rhea in my head speak. She sounded as if she was in pain. "It has to end soon. Prepare yourself. I'll immobilize Ouranos. You know what is your role".
Ouranos' shape was coming back towards us. Rhea met again his charge. The two cosmic beings tore through at each other. In Speeds I could not follow, they made each other bleed so much that a galaxy could be filled by their cosmic Ichors.
They met and fought by releasing beams of wanton destruction capable of erasing stars, by creating weapons made of energy bigger than solar systems, by using the matter that composed the body of Khaos and twisting and shaping it to bloody their adversary.
Rhea created a spear made of stars and tried to puncture the black hole that was the heart of Ouranos.
Ouranos created a dark gap to intercept the attack. At that moment when Rhea was unbalanced for a fraction of a femtosecond, Ouranos used this opportunity to strike like a viper. He plunged a fist made of supernovas into the cluster of stars and colourful gazes in the centre of the body of Rhea, In her visible heart.
His fist penetrated through Rhea's body and the nebulae began to convulse in agony on the fist of the Primordial.
I tried to use my scythe to cut the member of the primordial. Adamantine met divine flesh and flesh remained untouched.
I felt the scornful gaze of my father on me. The primordial didn't have a mouth yet I heard him speak "See how useless all your efforts had been. Even with the help of Gaia and the daughter of the Upper Sky, you and your siblings have not been able to do anything. Do you see the futility, the stupidity of your actions? After I'm done with both of you, I'll track all the rest of your siblings that I know you love so much so much Kronos. I will make them suffer through things even incomprehensible and horrifying to others primordials. I'll make them suffer eternally and I will never allow their spirits to meet with Khaos for all eternity and more. Perish knowing that you changed nothing in your pitiful existence," said Ouranos.
I felt The primordial begin to gather his energy for a finishing attack that would surely erase me and maybe Rhea from existence.
Watching the gigantic beam of energy forming, I thought of my siblings. I prayed to Time to protect them from the wrath of the primordial god of the sky.
Even in different dimensions, I knew my message would be heard by the other Uranides "I'm sorry".
I closed my eyes and awaited annihilation. I waited for it but it didn't come.
The stardust that made Rhea was moving. It tightened around the Primordial of the sky in the form of chains. "You talk too much" gurgled Rhea.
The chains lit up in beautiful hues of red and green tightening Further, digging into the celestial flesh of Ouranos and pulling his elements apart to expose his black beating heart.
"Kronos!!!" Rhea shouted. I threw myself towards the heart of my father without thinking. I bent time and distance and reappeared before the heart of the primordial god.
The heart of Ouranos bent and drank matter around it and tried to do the same to me to protect itself. As if I would let him! I expanded my domain like I never did before. My action made me noticed by Timebut at that moment, I didn't care about anything else other than slaying Ouranos.
I covered my scythe with the entropic characteristic of time and swang. The sickle met the black hole that served as the heart of Ouranos.
The scythe encountered the black hole and the black hole cracked. I tried to penetrate it further. I pushed with all of my strength. The scythe went further into the heart of the primordial. Around me, the primordial was trashing in pain. He sent me cosmic storms, planetoids to crash into me, and lightning bolts to erase my existence. I endured. I could feel myself dying. I wasn't strong enough to completely puncture the heart of Ouranos. Was this how it was going to end just at the edge of victory?
The grip that I had on my scythe began to loosen up. I had failed. At the moment when he almost lost his grip, something happened. I heard them. I heard them. I heard their prayers. "Please come back my brother," some of the voices said. "Please, brother succeed." Other voices begged, "Please, survive".
I felt strength fill me. I wasn't alone. They were still fighting at my side! I could see them when it should not be possible. I saw them and they saw me and I saw in their eyes only trust and love. I could feel their hands on my back pushing me forward, supporting me.
They had told me that they would always have my back and they were not lying. They hadn't lied! My grip on the scythe began to tighten again. I pushed the scythe with renewed vigour. "Win!!!" the voices screamed at me.
"Let's end this fight Father" I shouted. The scythe came out of the other side of the heart of Ouranos. For a moment nothing happened as if the universe itself was faced with an aberration, with something that should be impossible made possible. The heart of the primordial began to shrink down little by little. One of the tendrils of Rhea grabbed me and with me in one of her tendrils, she distanced herself from the primordial by going light years away from him.
The heart of the primordial had now shrunk down to nothing. The primordial looked at us in disbelief "How?" the primordial asked us. "How is it possible for me, for me Ouranos to lose to you?"
The primordial now made a pathetic sight. The primordial looked vulnerable, scared, and broken yet I didn't feel any pity towards my sire "You lost because of one thing Father and it is because you were alone. Because of your cruelty, you pushed everyone away from you and created hatred and resentment directed towards you. The reason for your fall was that even your children hated you."
"Because I was alone?" The primordial hissed. "Those that need others to rely on, to support them and go forward are weaklings!"
"Then I am one of those weaklings, father yet the winner is me and my siblings. It wasn't you. If I was alone, I would have had no chance of winning but I know one thing. As long as I am with my siblings and supported by them, I know that I'll never fail and this is the difference between the two of us. It is now time for you to rest. We'll rule in your place and we will make a Golden age that would be never be marked by the same cruelty that existed in your reign."
"Cruelty is necessary for order. Everything I had done was right. You all are children grasping for things beyond your strengths and understanding. Heavy and bloody are crowns child. You are naive Kronos and it will be the reason for your fall." The primordial began to talk as if in a haze "You speak of family, you speak of support". The primordial laughed "I curse you Kronos. When you are at the height of your power, When your future reign is at its apogee, you'll lose everything you care for. You'll lose your so dear family. You all will be cast down from your thrones and will be remembered as Deities having strained themselves to reach the unreachable, as Titans."
"As long as they are with me, I don't fear your curse or the future," I said back to him.
"Only eternity will tell" the Primordial whispered before his heart shrank to nothing and popped away in a flash of energy that illuminated all the universe in a grandiose display making burning stars fall all over the universe.
I sheathed myself in a mortal disguise and closed the door in the centre of his existence. "Goodbye, Father, may we never meet again until the end of all things".
I freed myself from Rhea's tendrils. I turned toward my half-sister and with a wave of my hand tried to erase the grievous-looking injuries she took from Ouranos. It didn't work completely. The bleeding stopped but a hole remained in Rhea's body. The wounds coming from a primordial, a superior existence to me were probably the reason why I hadn't been able to undo the wound.
Rhea's form twisted and warped around itself condensing itself into a golden orb the same size as me. An arm broke from it like an animal hatching from an egg. The rest of the body followed suit to show Rhea in her mortal disguise.
Rhea looked the same as before except for the boulder-sized hole in her side that was slowly being filled by self-regenerative flesh. Rhea looked exhausted as if she was a finite mortal creature. I came close to her and presented my right arm to her.
She looked at me in the eyes and I saw a reflection of the true form of the monstrous being known as Rhea. Instead of feeling dread or horror, I felt amazement because I only saw beauty.
Finding what she seemed to have been searching for in me, she grabbed my arm to lean herself on it. I materialized dark wings in my back.
With them, I propelled both of us toward the body of Gaia. Around, us, the Kosmos, the body of Khaos flew by.
We entered into Gaia's gravitational pull and fell toward the heavenly place where Gaia and Ouranos reunited in the past.
My feet touched Gaia and the world around me awoke. The primordial goddess ' gaze fell on me. From the ground, she rose up taking a mortal shape similar to her children's shapes. With a swap of her hand, an identical sky even though it felt empty appeared to cover Gaia as a dome.
"You succeeded. I knew that amongst all my children, you, Rhea and Kronos were different. You fought against a stronger, older deity and won" the Earth Mother said.
A gap in space-time opened behind me at my command "Ouranos fell not because of only Rhea and me. He fell because of the important roles played by each of my siblings".
Behind me, my siblings stepped forward onto the body of Gaia. "Ouranos… , he fell because he was hated by all and thus alone. Ouranos fell not only because of Rhea and me but because of the help of my siblings" I continued.
His siblings stopped on both sides of me in silent support. I knew that I would have after finishing speaking to Gaia to face my siblings and their understandable and rightful anger due to my past actions.
"Are you sure child that your siblings are deserving of as much praise, of as much congratulations as you?" the primordial goddess of the Earth asked me.
"I'm without a doubt sure of it Mother" I answered, my gaze unwavering from hers.
"Then so be it," The protogenoi said. The voice of the primordial thundered terribly and inevitably like a natural disaster "Ouranos has fallen!" the voice of the goddess boomed. "He was cut down from his place, from his throne by his children that he had mistreated and considered lesser! Ouranos fell due to his children whom he claimed were straining for something they could never reach yet those children reached and succeeded in accomplishing the impossible. Those children, those Titans won. Thus I declare those Titans as rulers, as Godkings and Godqueens." I felt a weight appear on my head. I also felt power diffuse into my being making me more. I felt my hold over the Earth expand and come close to the familiarity I had with time. "I give to those Titans, to my children dominion over the cosmos. I give them the duty of keeping the balance of the world, of ensuring the non-collision of the new sky and my body."
Things microscopic and macroscopic that I had missed were now perfectly registered in the back of my mind. I could see the story of the past of every living thing around me. I saw their present, through their thoughts as if they were mine.
Gasps of awe and shock made themselves known around me. Regal crowns laid on the brow of his siblings and like me, I could feel the changes that their essences had undergone.
Rhea's injuries had vanished. It was easy to see now that the quiet discomfort that she had tried to cover was now gone.
The world and all his creatures kneeled before my family and Rhea. They praised us and screamed our names with fervour and worship.
"I'm sorry" I finally said to my siblings.
"Apology not accepted" Themis replied immediately.
I sighed but didn't argue. I had expected this.
"What you did was too selfish and cruel for any of us to forgive you," said Themis.
Tethys continued, on her face, a false smile was etched "You made a promise, you swore and yet you broke it".
My head tilted downward to hide my eyes from the I of my siblings and the world around me. He knew the possible consequences of his actions yet that didn't stop it from aching inside me when it should have been impossible.
"Raise your head Kronos," said Dione. "It is a time of celebration, not a time for sorrow".
"I can't truly be happy knowing any of you harbour anger at me when what I did even if I broke our oath was to protect you!" I spoke honestly
"It baffles me how You're both so brilliant and stupid. We are not angry Kronos. We didn't harbour Inside us any wrath toward you" Mnemosyne told me. "What had taken root in our hearts was fear, fear to lose you. As long as you don't seem to see the importance of your immortal life, we will never accept your apology. If you want to be forgiven, prove to us that you care about yourself as much as we do.
"I'll try to do such" I replied after a moment.
"Don't try" Krios spoke. "Just do. If you fail, we'll be there to put you back on the right track."
"Understood," I answered. "This… world," I began "needs to change. The touch of our father on its surface is something I can feel even though he mostly left the physical plane."
"It's not all" continued Lapetus. "Our father was both a liability and a deterrent. Foreign beings and the foolest of creatures that hid or didn't intervene will now try to prey on what they think is weakness."
"We also have to be careful about our so-called subjects" spoke Theia. "Some of them will use their fake servility to probe our possible exploitable weaknesses and strengths. Some of Them served our father for millions of years even before our births. They may appear subservient but I'm sure some of them plan to undermine us".
"We Gained our crowns not even half an hour ago and we already got so much to worry about," said Tethys already looking exhausted about our future tasks.
"We also have to ensure that the new sky remains away from Gaia. I can feel also a strain as if my strength was transferred to the support of something immeasurable."
"I feel the same as you" I spoke after a mental self-introspection.
My siblings around me voiced their agreement feeling the same weight. "Mother had spoken of us bearing the responsibility of this lifeless sky not falling on her body. She had said that we bear the duty of keeping the balance of the world. Maybe it is what she meant" Phoebe thought out loud.
"In the end, it doesn't matter. No matter the adversities that come, I know that as long as you are all with me, I have nothing to worry about. It's kinda ironic, for me an oath breaker to say this but" Kronos' gaze swept all over his siblings "Can I hold you on the promise of you never leaving me?" I asked them.
"We followed you against a primordial brother and didn't betray you when it was the most idiotic and suicidal possible action for any of us here. We'll follow you brother into the ushering of a new age" said Hyperion.
"I see". I felt a smile stupid bloom on my face. "How stupid of me. Yes." I turned showing my back to the adoring crowd to fix my gaze on all my siblings. "Let's make a new age brighter and better than the one of Ouranos. Let's make a golden age." I Proclaimed.
The entirety of my gaze fell on Rhea. I wanted to say so much but instead, he said this "You were given a crown. You have a place amongst us if you wish you to".
"Why not" the goddess answered. "I can not wait to see what golden age you bring Forth Kronos" She whispered my name at the end.
With the world kneeling before me, me bearing the weight of a crown, surrounded by his family, under a false sky my golden age began.
So, sorry for the delay?! To be honest? I had finished writing the Kronos interlude one month and a half ago but the problem is that instead of writing something like 3K words, I wrote more than 40K words. I thank again my Beta Cam Katarn who worked so hard to correct it. I decided to divide the chapter, to post many different chapters because it makes it easier to correct it in case there were errors. Ouranos' true form was inspired by a blue quasar and Rhea's by a nebula
Chapter 16
We built on the remains of our father's reign a new foundation, a better one. We brought order to a chaotic world that had been such because its previous ruler didn't truly care for it.
We built our own home on the highest mountain and called it Othrys. We built a home with adamant and golden diamonds. We painted it like a canvas with our own divinities and domains making it us in any possible way. We built a home where we would not have to hide anymore. We built a home in a place where we would not have to evade the gaze of a stronger deity, being looked down on. We built this home so that this time, the ones being looked down on would not be us, so that the world could see and watch us without us feeling dread.
We freed from the stomach of the Pit the Hecatoncheires and Elder Cyclopes and dressed them in clothes of gold and obsidian. We worked to right the wrongs of our father.
We created laws that we engraved into reality itself. We changed through those laws the nature of the world and made it accommodate our will.
We cast off death away from our kingdom and made every creature immortal. My siblings and I ensured harmony between the creatures of the Earth, the sky and the sea.
To do such, Tethys left them to go rule the body of Pontus. She left the home we made to ensure that nothing could topple it. She bound herself deeper and tighter with the ocean. She came back changed, metamorphosed into something different and terrible.
Gone was the laughing and playful Tethys. What had come back from the abyss was something different. Warmth was replaced with cold. Emotiveness with numbness. The empathy that was directed toward all was now only reserved for us, her direct siblings.
Tethys shouldn't be like this before. We had won! She wasn't supposed to become such a thing. It's as if we were cursed. Looking at Tethys, I could only ever see the twisted corpse of my sister looking back.
We didn't have the time to grieve or try to find a way to make Tethys go back to her original nature. There was always something new. There was always a new crisis. There was always something that had to be done.
Quelling rebellions, and fighting against extra and intra-terrestrial invasions. Fighting against Mortal creatures that could due to their might be considered divine.
Fighting against Daemons and Deities that came differently from Khaos. Trying to do the right something, to build something with all those obstacles almost made me want to give up, to stop trying to be kind.
Why should I be kind when those I helped, and protected were the first to try to betray me because they wanted me lower than them or because they feared me?
I understood at that moment the last words of my father. All those problems were provoked by our kindness. Our kindness was seen as a weakness. Because of it, all our enemy thought it smart to pounce on them.
The reason I hadn't followed the example of his father was because of an unexpected event. That day, I had been that day alone in Othrys.
All of my siblings except me had been out of our home, each working tirelessly to strengthen our reign. I had been lost in my mind at that time stuck into listening to the endless prayers of my subjects. Subjects I had thought would on the first occasion betray my siblings and I if they found a better alternative.
I had been found by Rhea that day. She had always been able to see through me even when I tried to hide it. She had me him and had just asked me to come with her on her walk.
I had accepted. I had nothing that I thought or considered more important. We hid under a spell that made us appear inconspicuous.
We wandered like the breeze through the cities of my subjects. Like wraiths, we flowed inside the lives of the people living under the reign of the Titans.
We saw a young dryad playing in a town square laughing and carefree surrounded by nature spirits with smiles inscribed on their faces. I blessed her so that time would never erase the joy she created in the hearts of others.
Another moment, we were following a pack of shapeshifting giant wolves. The Neuri was the name those creatures had decided to choose. I saw them running focused going in a direction only they were sure of. They arrived before a waterfall separating them from the place they wanted to reach. The waterfall was one that I knew was inhibited by a voracious sea spirit, a child of Pontus who liked to steal the souls of those falling into its grip.
We, Titans, may have made our subjects immortal but it was more a physical thing than the complete immortality deities were born with. All the wolves except one jumped and reached the other side of the waterfall.
The last wolf and the youngest it seemed hesitated before throwing himself up in a giant leap trying to reach his pack to the other side.
Unfortunately, he wasn't able to. The young Neuri jump hadn't been well planned. I knew that He would fail to reach the other side.
I instinctively tried to act but my hand was grabbed by another one. I turned towards Rhea who had stopped me "The whelp is going to die. What was the point of us coming here if it was to contemplate a tragedy?"
"The importance of patience should never be discarded. You should know that very well lord of Time," she said in a playful tone still looking at the young Neumi.
The young pup also realized as well that he wouldn't make it. I could see in perfect detail how fear and horror were etched on his face.
Under the young Neumi, the spirit of the waterfall, the son of Pontus was bubbling in anticipation, eager to consume the soul of the young wolf.
The canine body of the young Neumi fell closer and closer to the water. The Neumi was falling into the grip of the waterfall until suddenly he wasn't.
His drop was stopped by a strong grip. I could see that the other Neumi hadn't been idle. They had used their own bodies as an improvised bridge to reach the falling pup.
"Let's go" Rhea whispered to me before disappearing. I gazed one last time at the Neumi tribe. Their youngest had been brought to the other side. He was surrounded by the pack that was checking on him to see if he was well. I blessed them so that the steps they take in nature will always be certain.
Like the wind, I moved to the place where I could feel Rhea. I appeared at her side. They were now on an island which I could feel was deserted using my authority.
I could feel the grass under my feet. I could feel the sea breeze batting against my skin and ruffling through my dark locks of hair creating a dark halo around my head. Tall trees protected us from the harsh glare of Phanes. The location Rhea had selected was one eerily similar to the previous home my siblings and I had before being forced to live underground due to our fear of Ouranos.
Rhea grabbed my hand and began walking towards the edge of the island. I let myself be pulled. We arrived at the spot where grass was replaced by sand.
Before us as if waiting was a napkin with diverse foods on top of it. I could see Ambrosia, Nectar, divinely cooked meat and what seemed to be a star in a transparent glass.
"You planned this, didn't you?" I said to Rhea.
Rhea sat and with her gaze invited me to do the same. I did. I sat at her side. Not far away from them, the sea flowed and receded in an endless cycle.
"I did" Rhea admitted. "I had planned everything since the beginning. Does that displease you?" she questioned me.
"It should displease me yet it doesn't," I answered her. "Tell me, Rhea. Except for making me come here, why did you show me all of what you did? What was the point? I know that there was some sort of motive behind every action you took".
"You're right," Rhea said. With one of her nails, she cut in a simple movement the meat of the beast that had been cooked at her wish and swallowed it like a shark with its prey. "I showed you all of this because even though you tried to hide, we all have seen how ruling has affected you."
"What do you mean by all? Do you mean everyone in Othrys noticed?" I questioned the daughter of the Upper Sky.
"I meant only those that matter so only our siblings." For the first time since our fight against Ouranos, I felt the undivided attention of Rhea on me. "You worry too much. You overthink too much to the point it could be a flaw that could prove itself fatal to you".
"I have to worry Rhea. I have to think. There is always a new crisis. There is always a new problem. There is always someone dissatisfied. There is always something that could be done better that wasn't. We made a promise to be better than him but it is so… hard, so hard Rhea." A crazed laugh escaped my lips. I leaned on one of my hands "Sometimes, I want to stop trying."
"So stop".
"What?"
Rhea repeated herself "Stop worrying, stop trying. There I s something you don't understand about crowns Kronos". Rhea looked him in the eyes "Crowns are synonymous with tyranny. You may try to present it in another way but in the end, it was, is and will always be the same. You claimed this crown for you and your siblings through strength, courage and wits. You usurped it. Your usurpation was confirmed by Mother but tell me Kronos, it is fair?"
"What do you mean by asking if it is fair? We gained this crown through suffering. Of course, it is!" I declared.
Rhea answered calmly "Is that truly the case though? None of us is the strongest or the smartest or the wisest. I'm sure that some of your subjects or other deities are more compatible with those adjectives than us. Gaia would have not come to the Uranides if you weren't children of Ouranos. It is because of your blood, what you are and not who you are that you are where you are today. I have wandered amongst the denizens of your realm and other realms Kronos." Her gaze became vacant as if she was relieving memories "I watched them. I studied them. I saw their fears, their joys, their anger, their horrors. I could never truly understand them. They all ask for a meaning to strive for something they think should be but isn't. I saw some of them try and succeed. I saw some of them fail in the most abject way." Her full attention went back to the youngest Uranide "They all taught me one thing Kronos. Do you know what?"
"What?"
"They taught me Ô High king of Othrys that in the end, nothing mattered. All will vanish in the end. Everything except maybe the first one has an end. I know that you know this Kronos," she told me.
I laughed "So your solution is to stop caring."
"You can say that," Rhea answered. "Stop caring because nothing matters."
My gaze went downward. "Stop thinking and listen to me," Rhea told me. "I didn't finish talking. Nothing matters." Scarlet Flowers began to bloom from Rhea's hair "So everything matters" she continued. "Stop thinking about things, about what you could do or could have done. Do what you think is the best going forward. If you want to be a tyrant, we'll support you. If you want to be kind, we'll be kind. We are the only things that matter. Nothing else does, so stop worrying and start leaning more on us."
Rhea's face was centimetres away from mine. Our eyes were fixed on each other. I looked into her beautiful green eyes, the most beautiful eyes that u had ever seen. I could glimpse stars in them. "Do you understand?" she asked me.
"Yes," I breathed.
"Good," she replied and then she kissed me. It wasn't a hard one trying to establish dominance or one that was full of lust. It was a chaste kiss yet, it felt as if I had been electrified from the inside, as if all of my nerves had been lit up.
After a moment that for me had lasted both too little and too long, Rhea withdrew from the kiss. "I hope you didn't hate it," Rhea spoke softly.
"No… , I didn't" I whispered feeling lightheaded. I was an immortal. It should be impossible for me to be lightheaded!
A smile that was too perfect and bright even for the divine bloomed on her face. "Can I kiss you again?" she asked me.
I smiled. Instead of answering, I kissed her losing myself in her and the emotions she brought up in my divine essence.
Chapter 17
Since that day, the drive that I had lacked, the drive that had gone, the desire to be better was back. Due to Rhea's actions, the thoughts and the worries plaguing my mind had disappeared. Maybe I would fail, maybe nothing in the end mattered and all of my actions were doomed to be forgotten.
The only thing I could be sure and should worry about was the present. Whatever would happen would happen.
Time passed and brought changes with it. My siblings more than contributing to our realm found companionship in each other. Tethys, ruler and the dominant deity of Pontus chose as her consort our eldest brother, Oceanus.
The relationship between Oceanus and us, his siblings had been since the fall of our father something that could only be called complicated. On one side, He was our brother, so we loved and cared about him.
On the other side, Oceanus had been a coward. He had refused to follow us, to help us against our father when he was the eldest. He had refused to fight not only for himself but for his family because he was scared.
When we had won and had been crowned by our mother as rulers of the cosmos, Oceanus hadn't been included. He was Oceanus, brother of the Titans and Rhea and lord of nothing.
When he had seen us after our coronation, shame had appeared on his face. We had told him that nothing had changed, that even though he wasn't officially crowned, he was still a ruler of their realm.
Those words had proven themselves to be false. No creature in our kingdom respected Oceanus. Whispers and sneers followed in his wake. Coward, he was dubbed behind his back. His authority was one that only existed not because of himself but because of us, his younger siblings, the siblings that he chose not to protect in self-preservation.
Amongst us, distance appeared. Visits from my other siblings and me to him became fewer and fewer. Always an excuse on the tongue to mask the newly formed apathy toward our kin. Always a new responsibility to justify an irritation, always a new problem to mask an ever-growing hatred.
In all of them, Only one still cared maybe more than before for Oceanus and that was Tethys. Her grasp and the deepening of her link with Pontus had changed her almost completely. The thing that remained intact was her love for us, her siblings but even though we loved her as much as she did for us, we would never truly be able to understand her plights and accept her changes from from what she was before.
She was like a new creature almost alien. Maybe this was why the embers she had for Oceanus in her frozen heart erupted into a bonfire. Oceanus shared the same domain as her. He was also linked to the ocean. Even though his link with the sea wasn't as deep as the one Tethys had, it still was something that he shared with her that the rest of us didn't.
She was alien to us but not to him and she noticed it. I didn't exactly know what she told Oceanus, what she proposed to him to make him come live with her under the ocean and become hers.
Maybe she promised a crown of his own. Maybe she promised him respect and worship and not disgust and contempt.
Nevertheless, Oceanus accepted and left the surface world behind. I watched him go with my other siblings from our thrones. Before he entered the oceans, he gazed at us, at Othrys a last time as if he could see us. Maybe he wished for us to stop him, maybe he wanted to apologize, maybe he at that moment wanted to curse at them.
When the waves swallowed him, I could only think good riddance as if a weight had been lifted from my foot.
Oceanus and Tethys weren't the only ones of my siblings to get together.
It had been the same with Hyperion and Theia. They were wedded dressed in gold and surrounded by only their siblings under the light of Sol at one of the temples of Hyperion on the east side of our realm.
Together they would bring three immortals into the world. From their union came first the twins Selene and Helios and afterwards came their youngest rosy finger Eos.
The twins were both identical as twins were and at the same time so different yet their differences paralleled each other. Selene, the oldest of them was born with an unmatched size, bigger than all of us Uranides. She looked like a mini version of Gaia. Unlike our mother though, her body was cold and devoid of life. Most of the time, she liked to drift around the body of Gaia in the nothingness of Khaos.
When she wasn't doing such, she would always take a mortal disguise to stay with her twin brother.
Their subjects would come to call her body, which floated above the sky, heralding the darkness of night, and sometimes hid the light of Phanes, the Moon.
Helios unlike his sister wasn't born with a gigantic body. At first, we had thought that he was ordinary and that he was just a titan of the second generation, that he was nothing special.
We had been wrong to think such. Hyperion had been born connected directly to Phanes. He could control the sun of Gaia. If the young Titan wished to, he could set the whole world aflame in a way not even his parent would be able to.
Helios when and where the light of Phanes would shine. He decided when the rays of Phanes were gentle or when they were harsh. He decided when plants grew or didn't.
He was the deity who saw and heard everything under the light of Phanes. He liked to rise in the east, in the domain of his father from his undersea palace, up into heaven, where he would reach the highest point at noon time, and then descend arriving in the evening in the darkness of the west where he would dine with his uncle Lapetus and repeat the cycle.
Helios and his sister accepted our demand to create a cycle of light and dark, a facsimile of Hemera and Nyx. They accepted and thus were known as bringers of day and evening, deities of the sun and the moon.
The twins more than their contrasting yet complimentary domains were identical appearance-wise when they weren't in their true forms. Even though they were born of different genders, they gravitated toward androgynous appearances with platinum blonde hairs and pale Electrum-colored eyes. They seemed to know every thought the other had with just one look. They sometimes acted more like a creature with two bodies than different individuals. Anyone, not an Uranide and not one of them seemed to be non-existing for the Hyperionides.
They were helped by their winged sister Eos who rose into the sky at the start of each day, and with her rays of light dispersed the mists of night thus earning the moniker goddess of the thing she was named after, Titan of the Dawn. Eos with all her light shone upon all that are on earth and upon the deathless Gods who live in the wide heaven.
Her only flaw was her unquenchable desire for handsome young men. A lust that even for an immortal was considered a little too much, a little too overflowing. When she wasn't doing her duty, she was passing her time with her harem of handsome divine and non-divine men in one of the castles her parents had built for her.
Oceanus and Tethys Brought numerous sea divinities into existence, they were as whimsical and wild as the ocean they dwelled in. Their children were called Oceanids and Potemois. They were divine beings both lesser and superior to their sires.
Their divinities were like wisps, malleable, lesser and more prone to change and that was what made them less. What made them more was that, unlike their parents who were connected to Pontus, they were born as extensions of the primordial. They could be called false primordials, agents of something beyond them probably due to the link between Tethys and the primordial of the depths.
Clymene was one of the elder Oceanides and the Titan of fame and renown. She could make songs sung in glory for eternity. She could turn successes into miracles forever heard or unknown footnotes for all eternity.
She would be sought by Lapetus, Lord of the West and my older brother who would marry her. They would give me three nephews in Atlas, Prometheus and Epimetheus.
In my opinion, the only interesting and actually useful child they had would be Atlas. Prometheus and Epimetheus preferred the company of non-divine beings and animals over their Kin.
Atlas unlike his brothers was born with everything, kings wished in generals. Atlas was absurdly strong being physically stronger than all the Titans both from the first and second generation. Atlas was also born with an unbreakable will. He could endure any kind of punishment. Something as simple as pain would never stop Atlas.
More important than all those previously mentioned qualities, what made me choose him as the general of Othrys with an authority just second to my siblings and me sometimes superior to ours in case of conflict was his loyalty.
Atlas was fiercely loyal to our family and loved it as much as the children of Ouranos loved each other. Atlas crushed any dissent with Zeal, went to foreign realms and conquered them in the name of Othrys. When he wasn't fighting for our family, he was either teaching lesser beings the art of astronomy or staying with the most important thing in the world after Othrys in his eyes, his numerous daughters.
Phoebe and Koios, rulers of the north of the kingdom of Othrys would have three children Leta, Asteria, and Lelantos. Unfortunately, none of the children inherited much or were born with a totally different domain of their own other than Lelantos, who was born with the domain of the Hunt. None of them could see through the plays and threads of fate as their mother and father could so they weren't given duties in the preservation of Othrys. Nevertheless, They lived a life filled with riches and joy because even though they were not as strong or useful as the other members of their family, their worth wasn't lowered at all because they were still my nieces and nephews, they were still my blood and were proof that my siblings and I did something right in building a world that could accept kindness and weakness instead of only cruelty and strength.
I didn't know how but Krios had been able to woo a daughter of Pontus and Gaia named Eurybia to be his wife. Fortunately, she wasn't like Rhea who inherited a lot from both her progenitors. Eurybia was a deity that I knew an elder Titan could have a good chance of winning against her individually.
With her, Krios had three children, Astraios that had his divinity lean towards the stars like a lot of his cousins and uncles, Pallas, the the second-born of Atlas who was born as a deity with the domains of battle and warcraft and Perses, deity of destruction that joined his sibling in the armies of Atlas.
On my side, I became closer to Rhea. Since her whisking me away from Othrys and our kiss, things had changed between us. Touches lasted longer. Smiles were exchanged. Understanding between us grew.
I would not be able to accurately label our relationship. The only thing I was sure of was that I knew that I was Rhea's and vice versa.
Sometimes we would leave Gaia when possible and peer at foreign stars and cosmic phenomena. We would talk of a unique future conjoined for both of us.
We would talk of Titans with my hair and Rhea's mesmerizing eyes.
When Rhea asked me one day if I would accept to live through eternity with her until our inevitable end, I accepted.
No wedding took place. No one was invited or informed. Nothing was formalized because our love was one that had a place only for the two of us and no one. We didn't need ceremonies, or tradition to swear to stay together forever and ever because our love was a chain strong enough to bind us with mannacles of molten stars.
Everything went well. Everything was perfect until it wasn't anymore. One day, my siblings, rulers of the north of the kingdom of Othrys came to him with ill tidings.
They had seen the future of Othrys and had glimpsed the end of Othrys. They had seen my end, cut up in unnumerable pieces by divine beings calling me Father. One of them had the eyes of Rhea. Around the vision of horror of what was to come, Othrys laid in ruin devoid of its splendour.
I remembered the curse of my father, of the prophecy uttered promising me the loss of everything I held dear.
At that moment, I felt in my heart fear like I never did before. "It won't happen," I spoke. "I won't let this future come" I said looking into the void of Khaos.
"It's Ananke, Brother. No one can escape it even us" Phoebe said softly.
"Ananke can go fuck itself! I won't let our future, what we built destroyed because of the will of a Primordial!"
I turned towards my siblings "We fought against our father and won. We are more now, we are stronger than ever. I know that if we're together, nothing in this world can stop us. I believe in us. Do you still believe the same?" I asked my siblings.
Their gazes met min unwavering "We do Kronos" Koios answered. "We came from nothing together and together, we will go back to it. We'll follow you anywhere Kronos."
His wife, our sister nodded as if to agree at his flank. "So how do we proceed, Brother? Who shall we inform?"
"Inform Atlas and only the Uranides except for Oceanus." my gaze turned back to the cosmos.
"There is something else brother," Koios told me.
"What?" I asked him.
"In our visions, we saw some of the allies of your children. It was… the Cyclops and the Hecatoncheires. I saw them fight against us, build mighty weapons for our enemies".
"After all we did for them, after saving them from the pit, they would still betray us" The laugh that escaped me was an ugly one full of sadness and anger.
"It seems that it was an error to remove them from the pits. Phoebe, informs Atlas and Lapetus of the future betrayal of the Cyclops and the Hecatoncheires. He can use any means he thinks best. I want the Cyclops and the Hecatoncheires imprisoned in the pit and given a warden who would make sure that thinking about escaping would never cross their minds. While they're imprisoned, I'll try to find a way to dispose of them definitely without Mother knowing it."
"It will be done, brother" spoke Koios. They shimmered as if underwater and disappeared.
I wasn't perfect. There were probably thousands of stronger divine beings than me in the cosmos. I also would never see myself as the perfect ruler. I had committed atrocities both inside and outside my kingdom. Due to my actions, oceans of blood were created. I despoiled the most sacred things. I killed children before their parents to break them. I made siblings fight against each other because it would help my kingdom. All those atrocious, heinous things that I hated, I did and would do them again without any hesitation if that meant that my family and my siblings would thrive.
I would bear the hatred of the world if I needed to, I would face the most abominable beings for them. Numerous creatures both mortal and immortal called me a monster as if that wasn't the definition of a deity.
In the end, for me, only the other Uranides and Rhea mattered. Nothing else did.
That night when I would see Rhea, she would inform me that she was bearing a child of ours. I would kiss her and express joy in a future, a family that I knew he could never have and if Rhea saw golden tears in my eyes, she would never know that they were of sadness and not joy.
Chapter 18
At the rate it is going, it'll take hours before everything is posted. Anyway hope you all like it
Atlas and Lapetus succeeded in their task. A clamour rose from my subjects and my family members that didn't know. Kronos had gone mad was what they said. Kronos is becoming like his father they whispered. I acted as if those words were inexistent.
I called back all the troops of Othrys from their different campaigns outside of my kingdom. I threw myself into learning sorceries to strengthen my armies.
With the help of a Titaness of the third generation, Hecate, I devised a spell that caused the strength of the Ecatoncheires and Cyclops to seep away from them.
I knew that I was acting like a creature on the verge of annihilation but the life inside Rhea was growing minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day.
The halls of my castle felt colder and less lively. I could hear from the mountain where my castle was the voices and whispers of my subjects both mortal and immortal.
The young Titans thought I didn't know but I knew of their anger, of their words face to what they saw as an injustice.
It angered me and made me want to strike them down. U would have if he didn't know that it would hurt my siblings even if they would accept it and if it didn't remind me of what Ouranos would have done.
They didn't understand that the comfort they were born in, the opulence and the freedom they benefitted from just by coming into the world was something that my siblings and I bled and fought for the mere possibility of such things.
They didn't know what it was like to cower away in the dark, in the entrails of the earth because you were scared.
They didn't know what it was like to have an uncaring parent who would only feel joy towards you when you suffered.
They didn't know what it was like to be broken, confronted by your end and still fight with the unlimited strength coming from despair.
They could complain to their parents but their parents, the elder Titans and my siblings would never truly respect them, or listen to their words because they had done nothing to deserve everything they were born with.
I needed to distance myself away from everything before I made an error, before I did another thing that I would regret.
I walked toward one of the terraces of Othrys. On my way, servants opened a way before me doing everything to not touch me, to evade me as if a touch would be enough to turn them nought.
I took a deep breath and with a flex of my will found myself away from Gaia in the cold and dark body of Khaos.
I dug deep inside into the inheritance I received from my mother at my birth, over my dominion over the earth and nature. I extended my right arm, palm turned toward nothing.
In the beginning, nothing happened until rocks exploded from my palm like a geyser. They continued to flow under my will forming a gigantic sphere bigger than the moon.
With my other hand, I called upon the other side of his inheritance. Whether I wanted it or not, I was the son of the primordial god of the sky and that meant that I had inherited much from my Primordial father.
I used the power inherited from my father and put pressure on one of the components of air until it turned liquid. I brought for another gas and did the same before finally putting a gaseous outer layer.
I closed my eyes. He released all my anger, my sadness, all of my doubts and despair into the emptiness around me. When I opened them, I found myself now in a sphere at least ten times the diameter of Gaia.
I was in a tempest. I would have probably been shredded to nothing if I wasn't a Titan. The planetoid he had created was adorned by a ring.
I had created an abominable replica of Gaia too big, too harsh and too different yet I felt at peace in my creation. My examination of the planet was stopped by a voice, something that should have been impossible because I had been alone seconds ago.
I turned towards the owner of the voice. It was her. It was the cause of all the fears and joys within my heart. It was Rhea.
"Can we please talk?" she asked me.
I wanted to find an excuse not to but a look into her eyes crumbled into nothing my will. She presented her hand to me waiting for me to grab it.
I grabbed it and we disappeared away from the planet I had created to what seemed to be Selene body but I could still feel Gaia too far away from us for it to be true.
I turned toward Rhea "I saw what you made but it felt so big and empty, so alone so I made numerous Selene-like replicas around it".
She laid down on her back on the ground. "It feels comfortable, try it Kronos".
A sigh escaped me but I capitulated and laid down. We could see from where we were the creation of Kronos in its entirety. "What will you name it?"
"The planetoid?"
"Uh-hu" Rhea confirmed.
"I don't know to be honest. It was an unexpected action that I didn't expect to take." I spoke softly.
"What you created… it reeks of despair Kronos. I can feel it as if it was mine. I don't understand things most beings do. I don't know when it is appropriate to be sad or happy. I can't feel as much as mortals and immortals yet I feel like, no I know that something is wrong."
"Rhea," I breathed. "It is complicated".
"I don't care Kronos! I told you, promised you that day between the stars that I will always love you, that nothing you will do would change it. But how can I help when you don't want me to?"
"The truth is that I'm scared Rhea. I still remember your words yet I still worry. Koios and Phoebe read the future and in it saw the end of Othrys, my end Rhea" I told her softly.
"No, no it is wrong! There must be something wrong with their viewing. Not now." All of a sudden, the deity stopped panicking "Where was I" Rhea asked me. "Where was I in that accursed future."
"You weren't there" I replied to her. Rhea looked as if I had slapped her. She probably wasn't there either because my future children found a way to beat her or because Rhea abandoned me.
"It's not your fault," I told her trying to reassure her. "You can't always be there."
"You're wrong Kronos," she said. Molten-golden stars fell from her left eye and scalded her skin.
I put my hand on her cheek and wiped away the tear with one of my fingers. It burnt through my skin but my hand remained on Rhea's face.
"I promised you that I would always be there but Ananke's cruelty is unmatched" Rhea spoke. Her head was turned downward not meeting his gaze anymore.
"Rhea, Look at me, please" I begged her.
"There is something important I need to tell you. I love you. I love you, Rhea. I rarely say it but I want you to know that. I want you to know that everything I do is because of my siblings and you. I make errors, and mistakes and even Ananke is against me but it's ok. As long as you never forget everything I love you and as long as you're with me, I'll be fine. May I kiss you?" I asked her.
"As if you needed to ask," she answered and I kissed her.
One thing that would never change was that I was a coward. I was at my core someone whom fear clung to, someone who represented the passing of time yet was scared of it. Maybe things could have been different. Maybe I could have taken actions that would produce another result. In the end, it didn't matter because no one escaped Ananke and its threads.
scene*
Not a long time after our talk in the void of Khaos, Rhea gave birth to a child, to a newborn deity in her father's domain. She came to Othrys immediately after to present the child to my siblings and me as it was proper. A child who was the beginning of our doom. I wasn't alone when Rhea came to present me the newborn. Hyperion, Phoebe and Koios were at my side. They knew too of the danger the child presented. My grip tightened over my scythe. I couldn't decide whether it was fortunate or unfortunate that they were there.
"Our child Kronos" Rhea told me while giving me the baby wrapped in bundles of silk and gold. My first thought holding her was that she was warm but not in a scalding way. It felt recomforting like a respite. Living flames flickered in and out of existence around the newborn. The newborn deity was a girl. She had inherited my dark hair and golden eyes. She didn't look ugly like most newborns did in nature. She looked like a finely sculpted doll. Unlike mine whose eyes looked cold, hers looked warm. I could see intelligence in the eyes of the infant deity. She would probably grow quickly as many deities did instead of staying a baby for a long time like most non-divine children did.
I had in his hands one of the if not the future cause of the destruction of everything I held dear. I had planned to slay the child with my scythe the first time he saw them.
It would be so easy. It would be the logical thing to do. One slash and the future of Othrys would be assured. One slash and my family would remain whole.
He I feel the heavy gaze of the other Uranides on me waiting for me to do what was necessary. In the future, I would reflect on that moment. One slash and Othrys would have remained. Alas, I had always been a fool and looking into the eyes of the child, my child, I failed to do what should have been done.
My fear was to become like my father and in ensuring the contrary of my progenitor, I ensured my fall.
I turned toward Rhea "Did you name her?" I asked her softly.
Rhea shook her head in a negative gesture "I didn't. I had ideas but I wanted you, her father to name her".
I looked at the fire in the eyes of my daughter, at the warmth she made me feel inside. "Hestia," I finally said. "She will be named Hestia so that her fire may create warmth and solace in those around her who need it."
I wished that by choosing this name, Hestia's flames never become ones of destruction, flames that would never render Othrys to ashes and dust.
I kept my focus on my child and tried to think about a future I knew i could never have.
Chapter 19
Like I had thought, Hestia hadn't stayed in the shape of a baby for long. She grew from a baby to a young child in two months.
Hestia was a shy child. Though warmth and comfort were created by her mere presence in those around her, Hestia preferred to shy away from interactions with most. Her voice could only be heard when she was in the presence of Rhea, me, Hyperion, Koios and Tethys.
Most of the time, Hestia trailed after me, following after me like a second shadow or sitting on my shoulders while I went about my day. In the beginning, I had been uncomfortable with being followed everywhere by my daughter, a daughter I knew was fated to be my end, a daughter I should have killed but didn't or rather couldn't.
I had asked her one day why she wouldn't stay with her mother.
"I'm scared" she had whispered to me.
"How could you be scared of your mother?" I asked her shocked. "You know that She loves you."
"I know that Father but sometimes, it's like it's not mother who's there. It's like she's a different person. I know that Mother loves me yet when she seems like Mother but doesn't act like her, it scares me. It's like if I don't exist and when I exist in her eyes, it's like I was just a mere speck of dust, it's like she saw me in my entirety and found me lacking."
I knew what she was talking about. The Rhea that I loved was just a small part of something bigger. Sometimes when I talked to her, it was as if she wasn't there. I had asked her once if the entirety of Rhea and not only a part loved me. The seemingly absent Rhea's attention had focused completely on me as if the intelligence behind it had seen something worth all its attention. She had told me "All of me does love you Kronos, never doubt of that. It's just that staying in one place at the lower level of existence you live in is hard."
"I understand your mother can be complicated. She's different, incomprehensible and that difference can be scary. I understand that." I kneeled "But here is one thing you must always remember, and that is that there is nothing in the universe that your mother loves more than you, Hestia. Do you understand that?"
"Yes," she answered looking downward.
"Good". I stood up and looked at my child. He sighed. "All right," I said. I took Hestia and put her on my shoulders. The gazes of two pairs of golden eyes met "You can still stay with me as long you want. Just try to stay calm when I'm dealing with important matters . Understood?" I asked her.
"Yes Father," She replied. The smile on her face indicated to me that I for once did the right thing.
Her closeness with Hyperion began because of his flames. Hyperion, my brother was vain even for a deity. He always adorned himself in the most intricate, bombastic tailor-made outfits that would surely attract attention. As if it wasn't already enough, Hyperion liked to use his flames as accessories, as "a final touch" he liked to boast.
Hestia and him had met at a feast that he had organised, one that I would have personally tried to not go but if I didn't I would hurt my brother by my lack of presence.
I had decided that it wouldn't be a bad idea to bring the one-week-old Hestia to meet a greater part of her family.
When we arrived at one of Hyperion's castles, Hyperion was there to meet us and welcome us. Hestia at first had been cautious of her overeager uncle.
In the feast, Kronos didn't know exactly how it happened but Hestia had without me knowing left my shoulder to go at Hyperion's side. She didn't look scared anymore. Hyperion was creating shapes with his flames to make a show, to amaze his guests. He was making dragons and other creatures from his divine fire.
Hyperion had playfully sent one of his creations near his niece. Hestia had at that moment done something unexpected. She had taken and usurped the control of her uncle over his own flames making it her own. The colour of the fire construct turned from fiery white to warm orange.
Unlike the flames of her uncle that were only created to impress, the flame of Hestia almost seemed lethargy-inducing and calming. The attention of Hestia had been focused on the fire and she hadn't seen the attention that her action brought her.
Hestia, a deity not older than one month has been able to take away the fire of an Uranide, a titan of first generation with ease as if nothing could have been more easy.
It could also be seen as an insult and if it had been done by someone of a lower station than Hestia, there would have been consequences.
I remembered the prophecy of Koios and Phoebe. My kingdom is in ruins and flames. I was defeated and lying in my own ichor.
A subtle frown marred the face of Hyperion. Hyperion too knew the prophecy. Even though it didn't seem like it, Hyperion was far from dumb.
Hestia didn't truly know and master her domains. She was still young yet so strong. Would she continue to grow in strength? Would she after a single year of her living able to set all of the Uranides ablaze? Hestia's mother was Rhea, a deity on a completely different level than the Uranides. Whether I wanted to admit it or not, Hestia was a threat.
Hyperion came close to Hestia. I had to stop myself from instinctively trying to put myself before her as if to protect her. Hestia's gaze left the now butterfly-shaped flame in her palms to look at her uncle.
The Titan kneeled yet was still overshadowing his niece "May I" he asked her.
She nodded her head in accord. He put one of his fingers in contact with the fire of Hestia. "It doesn't hurt," he spoke. "It is fire yet isn't. It feels as if by touching it, my body felt better. We met but we weren't properly introduced. My name is Hyperion, your uncle and it's a pleasure to meet you, Hestia."
Hestia's gaze went searching for me and I nodded. "I am Hestia, daughter of Kronos and Rhea and it is nice to meet you too uncle".
The voice of Hyperion began to boom "This feast was organized to celebrate me, to sing about my siblings' glories and mine but now, I found that there is someone else here that we need to celebrate. I present Hestia Kroneiõnē." The voice of Hyperion began to take a mystical and entrancing tone "She shows us that the future of Othrys is bright! Our legacy will be everlasting! The light that we cast on the world to banish the darkness and foul Daemons outside of our kingdom will never perish! Glory to the Uranides! Glory to Othrys! Glory to Hestia!"
As if hypnotised, the lesser deities, nymphs, Daemons and Potamoi attending began to repeat the words of Hyperion "Glory to the Uranides! Glory to Othrys! Glory to Hestia!". The voices began to be louder shaking the earth like an earthquake "GLORY TO THE URANIDES! GLORY TO OTHRYS! GLORY TO HESTIA! GLORY TO THE URANIDES! GLORY TO OTHRYS! GLORY TO HESTIA!".
Hestia looked amazed, enraptured by what was happening around her. My gaze met with the gaze of my brother. Hyperion
wasn't the sharpest tool in Gaia but what Hyperion had was charisma. The easiest way to deal with Hestia had been to end her at birth. Now she was growing in strength. If you couldn't fight against someone, the next step was defeating them by making them join you.
The Uranides had already in the past fought against a primordial and did the impossible. We were now older and stronger. Why couldn't we do the same, accomplish the impossible again?
The voices continued to chant " GLORY TO THE URANIDES! GLORY TO OTHRYS! GLORY TO HESTIA! GLORY TO THE URANIDES! GLORY TO OTHRYS! GLORY TO HESTIA!"
Do you fear your children toppling you from your throne? Here at Hyperion Inc., we have a solution for you, Good old indoctrination
Chapter 20
Hestia met Tethys during one of the rare times my older sister visited the surface world. Tethys saw Hestia and fell in love at first glance. It was as if time had been rewound and the Tethys we lost to the ocean was momentarily back.
Hestia who wasn't the best with strangers latched as strongly on to Tethys as strong as her aunt did to her. Maybe the reason the two of them became as close as they did was because they truly saw each other instead of trying to make the other something they could not be.
Because of Hestia, Tethys's visits to the surface world became more regular. Each time she came to the surface, Tethys always brought exquisite gifts with her.
It was kind of sad to think that Hestia probably saw Tethys more as her mother than she did with Rhea. Hestia didn't tell me anything but she didn't need to for it to be seen. The servants of my castle whispered when they thought I would not hear them "She acts more lively with her aunt than her mother" They whispered softly.
"Look at how sullen She seems with her mother. It's almost as if she fears her. Such an ungrateful child. I would hate it if my own child loved another woman more than me." they whispered.
I had erased from Othrys many lower deities because of those words but it's like nothing I did was stopping those rumours. In the past, I had liked to leave Hestia alone in my castle when going somewhere else for important tasks and when Hyperion wasn't available to keep an eye on her. I had thought that with a true army of servants, nothing could happen to her but I had forgotten there were other non-physical ways to hurt someone.
I would find something went wrong in my absence when I had come back to his castle and instead of servants had found living screaming corals grafted on the walls like a grotesque mosaic. I would find Hestia missing, whisked away.
I had not been scared because I had felt the divinity of Tethys simmering in the air like a bad cloud. Tethys was many things and it was true that I didn't know her as much as I used to but one thing I was sure that she would never hurt Hestia.
What I didn't like in this kidnapping was the fact that cleaning my castle to make it look pristine had been a challenge in itself.
I hadn't asked any justification to Tethys when she visited the surface world with Hestia at her side their hands interlaced. I had seen Hestia dressed in an azure peplos with pearls placed intricately in neatly braided hair.
I had seen the smile on Hestia's face and that had been enough for me.
One day while Hestia was staying with Tethys, Rhea came to me. One look on her face had been enough of a reason for me to abandon everything else. I had brought her to the island where we had kissed for the first time and after erecting a barrier around it so that we could have privacy and no one could eavesdrop, I asked "What's wrong Rhea?"
Her gaze was fixed on the stars "Do you think I'm a bad mother?" she asked back shocking me.
"Why do you ask this?" I spoke.
"So I am a bad mother," she spoke softly.
"I didn't say that Rhea."
"I know you Kronos. You deflected and didn't answer because you didn't want to hurt me but your lack of an answer is still an answer."
"Hestia loves you. Do you think she would if she weren't?" I questioned her.
"Yes, I think she would. I love our mother when the truth is that she's not the best one. She's cruel, and selfish toward her children and strangers yet I love her. Didn't you love Ouranos?" she answered.
"I didn't and I thought you knew it, Rhea. I loathed my father Rhea. Everything I do is in spite of him".
"You're a good liar Kronos but at some point, when someone knows you enough, it becomes easy to see through them. You created a golden age and vowed to make sure that things were never like before when he was king. Doing all of those things because of him, isn't it love?"
"No, it is hatred!"
"Aren't they the same though? I can see through mortals and immortals alike as easily as it is to look at the sun. I just choose not to most of the time. I know that you hide things from me but I don't search what those things are because I trust you, because I love you Kronos. When I use my sight, Love, and hatred, they were all the same shade of scarlet."
The Daughter of Aether sighed "Sometimes trying to do something is in itself hard Kronos yet you do it but even if you try, others look at you as if you didn't. They don't see the struggle. They don't see you fight to do what they consider easy. I never told you but I inherited more than a dominion over the earth and nature from our mother."
She turned toward me "I inherited control over the concepts of family and motherhood".
Rhea continued "I'm supposed to know better than this but I, a deity capable of shattering the solar system with her will, capable of fighting toe to toe with primordial, somebody with the domain of motherhood can't be a good mother."
"Rhe-" I tried to say something but was stopped by Rhea.
"Don't try to give me your pretty words to make me feel better Kronos!" Her voice softened "Can you just listen?"
"Yes," I answered softly.
"I thought that because I had this domain, I had to have children and maybe with it, I thought that for once, I would be able to do something right. Everything seemed to be going perfectly. I had found the one that saw me in my entirety and instead of being disgusted or reduced to wisps by my presence felt love. The moment I met all of you, the Uranides, I knew what you felt towards me," she told me.
"I had thought that with me having found you, everything else would follow as I wanted. I thought that I would be the best mother possible, that I would love them with my everything and they would do the same to me, but that's not what's happening. I love her Kronos, all of me does but love isn't enough. I try to stay grounded, focused, limited at the level of reality you live in but it's hard. It's like being suffocated. I try to bear it because of hestia and you. Once I made an error with our daughter. I gave her the blunt of my attention and it hurt her Kronos. Either be an absent parent or hurt your own child by your mere presence. What kind of choices are those? I act as if I don't but I hear most things happening on Gaia when I'm on her body. I hear their whispers about Hestia and me. What hurts the most is that they're right."
Rhea opened her palm and in it, a red Thread appeared. "This is our daughter's love for your sister." The red thread was thick and wide. It seemed to be interminable.
"This is her love towards me". The initial red thread had been replaced by another one of the same colour. Even though they were of the same colour, they could not be more different. This thread looked frayed and as if it was bleeding. With each drop of red, the thread became more sickly-looking.
"I think that… maybe… it would be better if I stay out of her life as much as I can. She loves Tethys and Tethys loves her. She isn't scared of Tethys like she is with me. Hestia and I are too different." she said.
"Is there a chance of anything that I say change your decision?" I asked my wife.
"No, there isn't," she replied.
We stayed in silence. The gaze of Rhea was turned back towards the false sky me and the other Uranides maintained in the air by our presence.
"I'm not sure if I still love Ouranos but I know that I know that I did in the past." Even though she was still watching the sky, I knew that Rhea was listening. "Ouranos had never been truly kind to us. The only kindness that he gave us was not throwing us into the stomach of the Pit at birth."
I chuckled "his reason was that we weren't ugly discolourations on his so-called perfect world like our siblings the Cyclops and the Hecatoncheires. I thought that more than that, maybe in his dark heart was a silver of care for us because he had spared us. I thought that I could find a way to make him love me, to change him. I ignored how he'd harmed my siblings and me always trying to find an excuse for him. Maybe if I hadn't done this, Father would not have been angry I thought. Maybe it happened because Iapetus provoked him I said. The thing is that each time he's hurt any of us, each time I saw one of my siblings suffer, it became harder to love him. One day, I did the stupidest thing I could do… I went to him and confronted him alone. I screamed at him until my voice felt raw and I felt empty inside. Ouranos waited until I finished before smiling at me. He tried to strike at me two times. The first one was almost enough to end me. I was protected from the second one by my siblings who interposed themselves between it and me. If Gaia had not been alerted before, all the Uranides would have died because of me. We had to hide in the entrails of Mother to escape his wrath until Mother came to us with a plan and you know the rest, Rhea".
"Maybe I still love him" I continued "but that love is one of a child naive of the realities of the world, a child that had to die so that my siblings and I could thrive."
"Did I ever tell you that I despise completely our mother's love?" Rhea told me.
"No, you didn't but it is a surprise, You're her perfect child, after all, the favoured daughter. That's how she refers to you and how most know you. Our mother's not so different from Ouranos. The difference between her and him is that she sees us as extensions of herself. She cares about us but love? You're probably one of the rare beings in creation she loves except herself," I answered.
"Is it truly love though? Do you think she would love me if I wasn't what I was? Would I be Rhea, the favoured daughter if I wasn't strong and hadn't inherited everything she wanted me to? Am I strong because I'm Rhea or am I Rhea because I'm strong?" she asked me.
"For me, it doesn't matter. You could be mortal, a foul daemon, a foreign deity, as long as you would be the Rhea that I love, nothing else would matter. In the end, you're Rhea because you're Rhea, not because of anything else," he said to her.
"My father and you are the only ones to think in such a manner." She stopped sitting and laid on the grass. Kronos copied her actions laying at her side, millimetres away from her. Their hairs behind them were like dark constellations and their sights focused on things beyond the false sky of Gaia.
"Hey, Kronos," she called.
"Yes, Rhea?"
"Thanks for loving me" she finally told me.
"You know that you don't need to thank me, Rhea. I wouldn't be here on this island with you if I didn't already know this and didn't feel the same," I declared to Rhea.
Their fingers intertwined "You could have simply told me love you too." Rhea said to me.
"I know," I said to her.
A comfortable silence surrounded them. There were many other things that I could be doing, important things for the benefit and security of Othrys, my kingdom. They were important things that right now didn't matter to me. Only Rhea did at that moment.
"You never spoke of your Father before today. I don't know what he thinks of me or even Hestia. You said that he would unlike Gaia still care about you even if you were not born as strong as you were and inherited enough from both of your progenitors to stand by yourself amongst primordials" I said to Rhea."
"My father," Rhea began "is the best father anyone could ask for".
"Even though he's the offspring of Time and Necessity, I have never met anyone more gentle, more understanding. He tried with everything he had to be the best father possible. Even though he never talks about it, I know that growing up with Parents like Fate and Time wasn't easy yet instead of being like them or reproducing what was done to him, he did the contrary." She turned towards me "maybe it is another reason why I love you."
"You still haven't told me why we've never met directly or indirectly. Does he disapprove of our relationship?" I asked her.
"Would it matter for you if it was the case?"
I answered honestly "No, it wouldn't".
"My father doesn't disapprove" Rhea finally answered. "He only cares about my happiness. As long as you ensure it, he would never consider harming you. If it puts your mind at ease, I asked for his permission to court you and he accepted" Rhea added.
"You courting me? Wasn't that the contrary Rhea?" I said to my wife.
"Maybe you were in love first but it is I who planned and acted so that we could be where we are today and I had the help of the others," Rhea answered him.
"I don't believe you. I would have known especially if the others were implicated" I told her
She answered me with a question "Why do you think that day everyone important, none of your generals, none of your siblings were there, that they were all conveniently busy. Even if that was the case, you know that we made sure that the centre of Othrys is always inhabited and thus protected by two titans but you were the only one. They also told me when the ideal time was that I should put everything in place."
"I'm going to make them all age a million years in a second" I murmured.
"You won't," Rhea told me.
I turned towards her "You forget who I am dear wife but tell me, why wouldn't I?" I asked her.
Rhea lifted two fingers "Because of two reasons dear husband. The first one is that anyone and I mean in existence that knows of you Kronos knows that you would jump into Khaos' stomach in the depths of the pit before ever actually hurting those you consider family and the second reason? It's because you're smiling. You're prettier when you smile. The gold of your eyes flows like a tempest and you look more attractive than a god of beauty".
I ignored the warm feeling in my guts as if nature spirits were dancing in my stomach "So if I understand, you don't think that I'm normally pretty?"
Rhea adopted on her face a thinking expression onto her face before looking him in the eyes "Hmmm, yes, this is what I meant, you're an ugly deity with a receding hairline, a bad goatee and a body that looks more frail than a skeleton".
Our gazes stayed unwavering in each other before I chuckled and Rhea snickered as if a spell had been broken. Watching the playfulness in the eyes of Rhea, seeing her laugh, I felt a weight remove itself from my shoulders.
Someone as bright and beautiful as Rhea should never look sullen or sad. It was akin to a sun without light, an earth without life, a world without Khaos. Something unnatural that shouldn't exist.
"The other reason why you or Hestia never met my father is for the safety of both of you. Even amongst Primordials, there exists a vast difference in power and level of existence. You may have been able to withstand for a little while the true form of your father because of your domain but you wouldn't be able to with my father. Even if he had tried to take a more mortal form, you wouldn't have been able to interact or even understand him and I couldn't ask that of him. Limiting himself to this level of reality would be like trying to fill a cup of water with the sun, something naturally impossible." Rhea told me.
"I see" I replied to her. We stayed in a comfortable quietness. Aether, the father of Rhea was even with everything Rhea just told me still weaker than Fate. Could I truly fight against fate when in the grand scheme of things, I was nothing more than a speck of dust before the primordials? No, I could not allow myself to doubt. 'You already did the impossible' I repeated mentally to myself. You can and must do it again.
I broke the silence between my wife and me "Regarding Hestia, even if I don't like it, I'll support your judgment Rhea" I told her.
"I know you hate it and I do too but I have to think about what's best for our daughter even if it hurts me. With Tethys and you, she'll be safe and happy. Nothing would hurt her. She'll grow up surrounded by love that I could never truly give her. That's all that matters to me and I'm sure it's the same for you," my wife Rhea said to me.
"I'll take care of her Rhea, I promise," I told her.
"I trust you. I know you would never hurt her" Rhea said to me before closing her eyes and using my shoulder as a pillow.
"Yes," he said softly "I would never".
I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the dread and self-hatred surging in me. I prayed to Khaos that I would never have to break my promise.
Time according it its nature swept over everything and brought the world ever forward. Hestia had now been alive for twelve years. Like all things did, my daughter had changed.
Hestia grew in beauty and in strength under my care and the Tethys and the other Uranides.
Growing under Tethys had turned the young shy and meek girl into a strong and cold woman. Sometimes, when I looked at her, I could only see a twisted reflection of myself.
Before her beauty, mortals and immortals threw themselves into their end for a chance to capture her attention. It was all for nought. It did nothing.
A part of me understood the reason for their infatuation with Hestia. Hestia didn't need to say it but it was clear seeing her growing that she was different from the rest of our kin.
It was as if she was more divine than the other Titans. The inside of Her golden eyes glimmered with flames in geometrical shapes that seemed impossible. Her skin looks less like divine flesh and more like a canvas in which white stars wretched in agony. Her voice was the command that bent reality and made the world itself shape to her demand without the use of divinity. She was more and everyone knew it.
All the people of Othrys even those who hated originally Hestia because of her lineage or her avoidance behaviour as a child loved her. They sang her name, they worshipped the ground she walked on. "Our Princess, our Lady, our Queen," They called her.
They couldn't see like me the indifference, the apathy in her eyes. They couldn't see how uncaring she was even if they split blood in her name.
It made me remember a deity that only cared about his siblings and nothing else, that could watch the world burn and not bat an eye as long as his loved ones were safe.
It scared me when I knew it shouldn't. I knew that Hestia loved me and my siblings, that she would fall on her own hand before thinking about hurting us yet the prophecy of Koios and Phoebe haunted me.
Any prophecies uttered by them had never been wrong but I wished that this time, it would be the case. I was an immortal deity with endless endurance yet I felt old and exhausted.
To celebrate the twelfth name day of Hestia, it had been decided that the event would occur in my castle, at the centre of the kingdom of Othrys.
Anyone from the kingdom of Othrys from the lowest mortal to the highest immortal was invited to the celebration. Atlas had volunteered to ensure the security of the feast in honour of in his words "his favourite cousin".
Hyperion and the other Uranides had chosen to personally organize everything so that the feast may be a success. Tethys had said that she would be late to the feast but she would be there due to the fact that she would have to quickly deal with important matters before coming to the surface.
It seemed at first that everything was going nicely. Guests drank jovially cups of nectar. Finely made Ambrosia was served to everyone. People were singing joyously under the effects of the beverage and praise flowed from every direction.
Hestia, the reason why everything had been organized was sitting on an erected throne at the side of my siblings and me, her indecipherable gaze fixed on the crowd.
A loud boom and an explosion of light broke the merry atmosphere. I found the reason for the interruption quickly even though it would be more accurate to say that the author revealed himself.
It was Astraios, the son of Krios. He looked drunk. A wide berth had been formed around him. I turned towards my brother who was running his hand through his hair in annoyance. The elder Titan sighed "I'm going to take care of it".
The Titan's form rippled in snowflakes reappearing before his child. The Titan put a hand on the shoulder of his child "You've drank too much and shamed yourself before all. Let's leave."
Astraios batted away the hand of his father. If things were silent before, now it was worse as if time had frozen.
The apathy that had been in the face of Krios was turning into cold anger. The guards that hadn't acted due to the status of Astraios as a Titan surrounded him now with tight grips over their weapons.
The Titan looked around him at the unsaid threats and laughed. "I won't repeat myself again" spoke softly Krios. "Let's leave son before you make me unable to protect you from the consequences of your actions."
"Consequences Father?" he slurred. He poured his drink of nectar on the foot of his father. "I don't care about them. I can not continue to see everything that I do and stay quiet, I Can't be happy knowing we're celebrating Hestia!" the titan hissed while pointing a crooked finger at my daughter.
"I see, you said you don't care about consequences you said?" I finally spoke. I turned toward the guards "Seize him and throw him in the dungeons. He will stay there cut away from the stars he so dearly loves for a century so that he may face the consequences he doesn't fear."
The guards began to advance toward him. He turned towards his father who was now facing away from him "You're not going to say anything?" he asked the Lord of the South.
Krios stayed quiet and began to move away from his child walking toward his throne. A word was whispered softly "Stop" and everything did. I felt Time standstill, the wind stopped in his tracks, the earth stopped moving and shadows and their owners were paralyzed
I turned towards the only one that would be able to do such a thing. Hestia's eyes hold an almost indecipherable glean to me. What was reflected in the eyes of my daughter, could almost be taken as a curiosity.
With a light pressure of her heel, Hestia glided from her throne to her cousin "You said you could not be happy while seeing me being celebrated. Why?" she asked.
"Don't bother with him, Hestia. He's just a fool, a drunk fool. It's just the nectar talking" I said to her.
The gaze of Hestia didn't leave the Titan of second generation "No Father, it is not the rumblings of a drunk fool. I can feel and taste what he really does feel inside Father like his emotions were mine and there is only one thing in his heart… hatred, one so deep it could swallow the stars and not only aimed at me but at you uncles, aunts and Father."
I lifted my hand to halt the guards. "I'm now interested Astraios. Congratulations, you now have the full attention of me and my siblings. Make it count".
The titan of second-generation gaze clashed against Hestia's. "You want to know why I hate them, why u hate you Ô dear cousin? I hate them because they are cruel monsters playing the roles of benevolent deities! I hate them because they care about nothing except themselves. They don't truly care about this kingdom, they don't care about their subjects, they don't even care about their children!"
"It is just that, a tantrum because you didn't think that you had enough attention?" Iapetus spoke softly. "You truly are a spoiled child. You were born with everything luxury imaginable. The strength and the light of the stars in your veins come from your father who gave them to you while you were in the stomach of your mother. Everything you have was given."
"A tantrum? A tantrum?" he repeated as if he could not understand what had been said to him.
"It is not a tantrum. Today is the birthday of Hestia and look all of you are personally there but when it was Leto's birthday, none of you were there! When Styx gave birth, none of you came. I saw the devastation you, directly and indirectly, created just because you could. I saw your lies about bringing civilization order and protecting the denizens of this kingdom when in reality those things were done because of fear. When Prophasis, your own grandchild was kidnapped during an enemy raid, you didn't care my lord" he spat.
"We still don't know what kind of torment he must be going through. When Epimetheus ask-, no begged for your help, you didn't care. Even now, I can only see on all of your faces indifference. How can I not hate you? How can't I hate her? What does she have that we don't?"
His gaze went back to Hestia "You're not one of us and will never be. You're something wrong, twisted that shouldn't have come to the world. I wish your mother could have gotten rid of you while you were within of her".
Hyperion's fist fell on his throne and from it erupted a boom that threw most guests away as if an invisible force pushed them "THAT'S ENOUGH, GUARDS!" screamed Hyperion.
Flames were flickering all over the castle. The temperature was going up. The ground, the silk, and the clothes were liquefying and being burnt away. I could feel the ominous glare of the stars in the cosmos. Screams erupted from the guests that tried and failed to put out the vicious flames. The horrendous smell of burning meat became omnipresent. From the clouds rained embers of fire. Only I and my siblings were absolved from their voracious appetites.
I turned towards my right to the only one I thought could do such a thing but found nothing but surprise in the eyes of my brother Hyperion.
The voice of Hestia was soft as if she had just whispered yet it rumbled like thunder and instinctively I summoned my scythe. An old dread that I had thought long forgotten resurfaced in my stomach. "You didn't lie at all."
She lifted her left hand and pushed it toward the sky as if grabbing it. "What is she doing" Hyperion whispered.
In the sky, a new star came to life. If before they thought the heat was uncomfortable, now it felt hellish as if one of the lower hells of the Hindus had replaced Othrys.
She closed her palm and the star in the sky compressed until not bigger than a basket. "Goodbye cousin Astraios" Then a spear of fire blasted from the sky on the still form of the titan of the second generation. It swallowed him in a white light and dug deeper until Gaia herself wailed in agony and it came out the other side of her body.
The spear of fire slowly but surely disappeared. I had expected to see the badly burnt and in agony but still alive form of my nephew. My expectations would be wrong.
"Astraios" Krios whispered after a moment. Astraios was a titan. Nothing less than a primordial should be stopping him from regenerating "Stop this. It went far enough. Where are you child of mine. Show yourself. You will be forgiven. Stop playing the fool and show yourself".
"He can't answer you, uncle. He's gone forever," Hestia told him.
"Iapetus, where is he!?" Krios yelled to his brother. Iapetus had dominion over souls be they mortal or immortal which meant that he could surely find where was Astraios' soul.
My brother closed his eyes. A soft silver but appeared on his eyelids before disappearing. He opened up back his eyes "I'm sorry brother," he whispered. "He's gone".
Silver tears flowed from the eyes of my older brother. He turned toward Hestia "Why did you do this? What Did he do to you to the point you hated him enough to erase him completely from his existence? Why Hestia?"
Her head leant slightly on the left like a puppet being played with by a marionnetist "Why are you crying, uncle? I saw in his heart and I knew without a doubt that if he was left to his devices, Othrys and our family would have surely been swallowed and destroyed by his hatred."
"How can you ask me THIS HESTIA?" At the end, his voice shifted taking an early resonance like the sound of arctic howling winds. "He was your family, your cousin, my son," He whispered at the end sounding defeated.
"I only did what was necessary uncle. My only regret is that it pains me to see you suffer like this" she said sounding almost apathetic and with a blank expression like a doll.
Necessary she had said. This word was one I hated with all my heart. Necessity was just another word for cruelty. It tried to justify it when in truth, it could never be.
The word Necessary talked of emotion-draining duty and of shoulders-aching burden. I looked around at the devastation that had been created by Hestia. I felt the mind-breaking pain that coursed through Gaia that she shared in distress with everyone linked to her.
Necessity. A word that I should not have drifted away from. I stood almost painfully from his throne. I ignored the gaze of my siblings and walked through ashes and burnt flesh and molten gold to my daughter.
"May I hug you?" I asked her.
A smile bloomed on her face and she nodded. I took her in his arms with all the love and care I could muster. I took her in his arms as if she was the most precious thing in Khaos.
With my head on her shoulder, I whispered this to her in her ear so that only she could hear his words "I love you Hestia and I always will."
"I know Father, I love you too," she answered.
Necessity, a word that I hated and loathed from all of his being. I opened and stretched my mouth and with it bit into the flesh and sinews of the neck my daughter beheading her and swallowing her head. I ignored the jets of ichor, of the ichor of his daughter on his skin and continued my grotesque feast. Around Me, my siblings and my guests looked at me In horror.
Necessity, something determined, existing, or happening by natural laws or predestination; inevitable, a word that I hated.
I had dreamt enough. It was time to wake up and do what was necessary for my family even if it hurt, made me feel as if I was dying.
My eyes and veins were the gold of the union of the Earth and the Sky. My strength was one that was endless. My powers were those of the precept of Time. I was still a weak god scared of the future and the endless advancing of time.
My father was right. Crowns were heavy things indeed. I closed my eyes, ignored the raindrops flowing from my eyes and bit.
Chapter 21
I could hear voices around me but they were muffled as if I was underwater. I could feel hands over my body maybe trying to bring me warmth.
I could almost see and catch a glimpse of shadow silhouettes around me. They crowded me and enveloped me in their embrace.
I could feel myself being moved, pushed softly away from my sin, from where was my daughter, a daughter her golden ichor erupting like a geyser from her neck, the ichor of Hestia, her flesh, my own, the taste, something I could never forget but how I wished he could.
Something paradoxically both warm and cold touched the right cheek of my face. I leaned in the comfort the gesture brought him. "Kronos" a voice called softly. "Look at me," the voice said.
"Please," the voice begged and I obliged it. My eyes met familiar green eyes, the eyes of my sister, of Tethys. In the corner of my vision, I could see we were not in the great hall anymore where Hestia's birthday was taking place. I could also discern the shape of my siblings.
She just said one word "Why?"
I forced myself to utter the words "Because it was necessary" I answered.
Her hand left contact with my skin as if she had been burnt. I felt weak. I supported myself on one of the obsidian walls with my. I ignored the sad, pitying gazes of his other siblings and fixed my gaze on Tethys.
I could see in her eyes disgust, anger, and hatred as if she was facing her stranger and not her little brother and it stang.
"Have you forgotten?" I asked her. "Have you forgotten what Hestia represented to us? Have you forgotten the prophecy?"
"It was Hestia, Kronos. She was the deity that would prefer to take her own life over hurting us! Fate can be changed, fate can be broken. We did once with our Father" she spat.
"What can't you understand? It is a prophecy from both Koios and Phoebe. Their sight never led us astray before! Try to think Tethys!" I answered almost sounding as if I pleaded and begged from all of my heart but the disgust in the eyes of my sister didn't disappear. It remained like a dark mark on a white canvas canvas.
"Even our Father didn't do such a thing, Brother. He didn't try to hide his cruelty behind excuses. We already did the impossible yet here you are. My brother was many things but he never has acted like a coward".
Rage surged through me and filled me with strength. How dared she? How dared she? "You talk of cowardice? Alright, let's talk of cowardice. Of everyone here, I'm the only that acted and did what needed to be done. I saw How she erased Astraios from existence like a primordial as if Khaos' essence itself had touched him. I saw how in a possible future, she could turn against us and chose to act now before it could be too late. You call me a coward when I had to hurt my own flesh, my own blood, my only child that I loved? I'm not the coward here! I disregarded my emotions and did what needed to be done instead of trying to pretend as if Hestia would not have been the end of us!"
"Don't say you loved her when the truth was that You didn't love her. If you did, you wouldn't have done it Kronos," she told me coldly.
Mnemosyne tried to come between us "I think that we all need to calm down after what happened. Let's try to stay calm before something non-retractable is said".
"Stay where you are Mnemosyne" Tethys warned her codly. "Talk and don't continue to lie about loving Hestia," she said to me.
"Lie?" I hissed. "I'm the only one who truly loved her. I was her Father!"
"And I was and am her mother! I was there because your wife didn't care. I was there for Hestia when she learned to write. I was there for Hestia when she cried! I was there for Hestia when she was happy! I was there when Hestia called me mother because the one who should have been was always absent. It was I to whom Hestia gave her first makeshift gift of flames and pearls. She called me mother and I called her daughter. She loved the ocean almost as much as I did so I had asked her to stay forever with me in the ocean, to link herself to it so we would be together forever. Do you know what she said?" she asked me.
"She said she couldn't because it would make it harder for her to see you. You were her reason to disregard what she wanted and how was she rewarded? you've hurt her more than even our Father has hurt us." Her pupil slanted taking a snake-like appearance "She said no to me because she loved you and thought you did the same."
She turned and began to walk away "Where do you think you are going to, Tethys? Othrys needs you, especially in that moment. I need you" I admitted at the end.
She didn't turn back but stopped in her tracks "Did you forget what we promised to each other in our youth? To always be there for each other. I did it for us and you can't imagine how it hurts but it is for us, for our family!"I yelled at her.
"Sometimes, I wished we either had stayed in that cave or that we all had perished against our Father. At least, in those moments, I would be able to honestly say I love you to any of you. Now, The ones I promised to protect have changed becoming mockeries of what they once originally were. We have become people that our younger selves would spit on. In the end, it doesn't matter."
She turned to face all of us "The Ocean, the Earth, Othrys, us, nothing matters. I'm tired of caring, sacrificing myself to the point that I let myself become twisted just… just for this".
She addressed Phoebe and Koios "I hope your prophecy was right so that all of this, all of this may be turned into ashes and embers".
Her body began to lose its shape "Goodbye sisters, brothers, no Lords of Othrys.. May we never meet again," and with those words, she disappeared.
I closed my eyes fearing that if I let them open, tears would spill from them. The weight of the sky on my shoulder felt as if it had doubled. Focusing, I understood quickly why.
Tethys had disconnected herself completely from Othrys and by renouncing her crown, she renounced her duty to bear the sky.
I willed the disappearance of the tears I knew wanted to spill from my eyes. Crying could come after. I opened my eyes and turned towards my remaining siblings "Our enemies will learn of the disappearance of Hestia and Astraios, with Tethys leaving as well, I know what they'll think. They'll be like hellhounds on a dryad bone. We need to show that we're still as strong as before."
"Kronos," Mnemosyne almost begged me. "Don't you think that we should instead try to find a way to make Tethys come back instead of caring about that?"
I left the support given t by the wall and began to walk slowly away from my siblings to my chambers. "Leave if you want like Tethys Mnemosyne or stay. I won't force any of you. If needed, I'll do everything by myself." I ignored the gazes I felt on my back. I would do what was necessary. I would do what was best even if those things did hurt me. This was for my family. Even if it meant that they would hate and leave me, as long as they were happy and safe, that was all that mattered.
After all loving somebody meant being Ready to receive their scorn and disdain, as long as what you did for them helped and made them happy even if this happiness was without yourself.
I finally arrived at my quarters and with great effort opened the door. I walked to my bed and sat on it. A mirror in front of the bed showed my reflection.
There was Ichor everywhere on my form. In my hair, skin, clothes. Murderer those stains painted me as. Monster they rightly judged me as. My eyes, my golden eyes, her golden eyes looked at me with Hatred, one I could not bear.
My head went downward. Finally, Alone away from all, I, the youngest of the children of Ouranos broke down and grabbed my head between my two hands. I whispered to a zero I knew would not answer "I'm so sorry Hestia".
Chapter 22
I sat alone watching the stars away from Othrys, the looks, the voices and her eyes that I could not escape from.
I felt a presence, a familiar one. My essence yearned for her arrival as two stars reaching for each other. The presence behind me could only be hers. I knew that sooner or later, she would learn what happened. I expected her to be angry with eyes full of hatred and betrayal.
I had taken my precautions just after what happened with Hestia. If something happened to me, Othrys would still be able to go on. I would not try to flee or defend myself if anything happened because I deserved everything wrong that was about to happen to me. As long as I was the only one paying for the sins of Othrys, I was okay with it.
I heard the sound of the grass being crushed as if a weight was destroying it. With each step she took, the island shook as if Gaia's anger had been directed to it.
She stopped just behind him. I could almost touch her. "Why?" she only said.
"Because I had to or maybe I thought I had to," I spoke.
It began raining "I don't understand Kronos. It's as if I have been thrown into the realm of the darkness. You loved Hestia so much yet what you did to her, to your daughter was something that even some of the foulest gods would baulk at." Her voice broke and with it, my black heart twisted painfully.
I had never wanted to make her sad, to hurt her. Everything I ever did had been for her and my family. Everything was so simple before yet It wasn't anymore.
I didn't turn towards her even though I wanted to because I didn't want to see on her face the pain I had directly inflicted on her. "Do what you have to do Rhea. If you want vengeance, justice, I won't fight it," I told her.
The solution had always been there before my own eyes. My touch was like a poison that darkened and turned rotten everything I touched. Othrys was supposed to fall because of me.
My children, my blood were the ones supposed to destroy my family and everything we created but those children wouldn't come into existence if I ceased to be. Maybe a long time after I am gone, Tethys will begin to see me again as her brother.
I had thought about doing it by falling on my scythe or by jumping directly into the stomach of Khaos but something, a premonition told me that Rhea would soon come. If someone deserved to take my life, it wasn't me but the one I had hurt the most, my wife Rhea.
I heard the screech of metal being bent. A sword was thrown at my feet and sank into the ground as if it was butter. "I can see your heart Kronos and you want punishment, You long for an end and that's what I should give you, that's what my father himself wanted to inflict on you before I stopped him," her voice said to me.
"Why did you stop your father or yourself," I asked her. I felt exhausted and could not suppress it anymore. The perfect mask of indifference and stoicism was cracking "Why don't you avenge her, do what needs to be done?"
"Because even with what you did, even though it feels as if my heart had been pierced by a primordial, I still love you." She began laughing. Her laugh wasn't one of joy but one full of derision and I realized self contempt. "You, the deity I love, that I adore killed, assassinated our daughter in the most abominable way, our daughter and I still love you. I wish I didn't it so it wouldn't hurt as much as it does."
"I'm sorry," I finally told her. "My siblings and you are my everything. If I could be someone else, someone who wouldn't hurt you, I would but I can't be that person Rhea."
She came and sat at my side yet it felt as if we had never been further apart "We shouldn't have been parents," she finally said.
"You're right. I don't think that I can be better than my parents. I've pulled away the veil from my face. So what now?" I asked her.
"Now, we continue together like we always have since we met," she answered me.
"Even after everything? Sometimes love doesn't excuse sins, Rhea. It would be better if we stopped," I told her.
She sighed "You're a bad manipulator when it comes to people close to you. Do you want us to stop?"
"No," I replied honestly. "I want to stay with you until the last stars burn out and Khaos awakes from his slumber. I never want to stop what we have. I want to engrave you on my existence and my Heart for eternity." Kronos felt moisture on his cheeks. The sky of the island had turned wild, menacing. The waters were churning angrily. The wind was howling like a demented beast. I was now screaming maybe at Rhea, the world or myself "I want Hestia to still be here. I wish that You and I could have been the perfect parents. I wish that for once I could look at my own face and not see her plastered ichor on me".
"You wish for a lot," Rhea told me. Her hair was soaking wet and framed her head in a curly Halo. "I don't ever think I could forget or forgive what you did. Something in me screamed to erase you and me after. What happened Kronos? We were supposed to be better than our parents"
"What happened is that we stopped dreaming and reality came to us. Maybe in another world, a kinder one, things would be different. I hate what I did," I admitted to my wife.
"But I don't regret it and I'll probably do the same thing again. Do you still want to share eternity with me" I questioned the daughter of Aether.
She turned to look at me. Her gaze pierced through the numerous masks that made me, to look truly at my essence. I wondered what she saw that I couldn't. "I look at you and see only love and care toward me, towards Hestia yet even with a love shining as bright as Phanes, you still murdered our daughter. I see regret and self-hatred. You want me to hurt you in order to partly extinguish your guilt."
She came close to me and kissed me. I let myself be submerged, I didn't try to fight or do anything. One of her teeth split my skin and made my ichor rivulet. She split from me and cupped his cheek lovingly. The gesture didn't erase the mix of hatred, sadness and disgust in her eyes "I love you more than my own being. There won't be a mercy next time Kronos because I will be there to make sure if you make an error like this again to grant you the cessation you wish for. I'll join you after, something I know you don't want Kronos."
She came close to my ear and whispered "My life is in your hands, Husband."
She pushed me gently and his head met the ground. She straddled me. "You took a child from me. You owe me another one. This time," she murmured, we will be better."
I wondered who she was trying to reassure, me or her. I didn't say anything. He knew without trying to look through the rivers of time what would happen. I was a liar, a monster and a coward. My only redeeming trait was the love I had for his family. I would not let anything challenge their well-being again. I would never let them suffer again.
I loved Rhea and hated hurting her but looking into her eyes, we both knew that it would happen again. My thoughts were chased away by a kiss.
Maybe in another world, I could have been a better Kronos.
Months later, Rhea would give birth to a child, a young girl with eyes reminiscent of our mother. Rhea would name her Demeter. I ignored the sadness in the eyes of the child as if she knew already what I would do and like with Hestia swallowed her in a spectacle of gore and cruelty.
I ignored the whispers and the looks from both my siblings and my subjects. I could understand it coming from others but from my siblings? From them? I wanted to scream at them. Everything I ever did had been for them and how did they reward my love, my care? With suspicion and with avoidance. I feared more than anything that they would leave me. Tethys, the one I thought would never actually leave did it. What proof had I that in the future maybe Krios or Mnemosyne wouldn't be doing the same thing?
"I told you before that I would do it again," I said to Rhea when she came to him anger and despair engraved on her face, tears streaming from her beautiful eyes.
She would answer me by kissing me. The same way my weakness was Rhea and my siblings, the same way I was for Rhea's weakness. In the same way, I could never fathom to hurt directly one of my siblings directly, the same way Rhea would never thought about hurting me. I had to admit that it was a gamble, one that I would have honestly not regretted losing.
Months later, she would give birth to another child, another girl. I saw in the eyes of Rhea that the goddess had already lost hope yet she was still clinging to a fantasy, a dream of a perfect family. She didn't want to realize or admit that the one she married, that she loved was even a worse father than the primordial god of the sky.
"Why?" she would always ask me sounding broken.
I would see her sadness and see it as an incentive to harden my heart to not fall apart "It was necessary," I would always tell her. "It was for the best of themselves and Othrys," I would repeat. They became words engraved in my mind always waiting to come out.
Her eyes, her beautiful green eyes would turn hateful but strangely not at me. Each time she would kiss him and envelope ours in bliss and debauchery maybe trying to find something she could never truly have in the contact of our skins.
Our song and dance would repeat again months later. This time, it would be a boy, a shy and soft child. The boy reminded me of Hestia the first time I saw her even though he couldn't be more different physically than her with his eyes so black they seemed to be doorways in the domain of the night and a skin so pale that looked like chalk.
The child had reminded me of my older brother Lapetus. In another world, I wouldn't doubt the fact that the child, Hades, as Rhea had called him would have been like the mirror image of Iapetus.
"Father," the child had begged.
"Mother," the child had screamed.
In the end, all of his efforts were nought. I felt as if it almost became easier after swallowing the child. I wondered how much I had changed that being bathed in the ichor of one of my own children became more like a chore than anything else.
I would not see Rhea after this for a year. I had thought that Maybe she had finally seen reason and left. Ending our marriage was what was best for Othrys and the both of us yet a part of me, an irrational part of him wished for Rhea to stay mine, for her eyes to still light up when she saw me.
Rheq would one day come and whisk me away from Othrys to the remote island that had become so much more for us, where it could be said that they became Kronos and Rhea, something greater than only the sums of the two of us.
"Can't you see it's useless?" I told her. "It's a neverending cycle that only hurts us. I'm tired of hurting you but I will do so if I must" I had said to Rhea looking into her eyes.
"I don't see it as useless and do you know why? Because I have hope in the future, in us even if it seems senseless. I believe in us, I believe in you Kronos," she answered.
"Do you believe the words coming from your mouth or are you trying to convince yourself?" I asked her.
Her answer was to kiss me.
Rhea gave birth like the other times to another deity a month later. The deity would come to the world in the form of a horse. Like all the previous times I would swallow the child. Kronos had thought that what needed to be done had been accomplished but I had been wrong.
Rhea had tricked me without me knowing it. She had grown tired of seeing child after child being slaughtered by their own father.
I hadn't known this at that time and my goal had been to not be forgiven by Rhea because what I had done was unforgivable but had been to try to alleviate my guilt, the one I had felt each time I had looked into her broken emerald eyes. I could never give Rhea what she truly wanted, the family I had promised but instead, I could give her the world and all its wonders to her. Rhea would never completely trust me but I already knew this. After all, my actions had been less for her and more for me.
I never said it but I knew that Rhea was aware that his actions were caused because of a need for penitence, absolution perhaps.
Things went well for two years. It could never be like before the unforgivable but necessary sins that I had committed but it seemed that our relationship came as close as possible to what it was.
Things had been too perfect and I should have known that something was amiss. One day, Rhea would tell me a terrible truth. She had given birth to a child, my child and hid it away from my eyes.
I had felt both frightened and angered. A plan had bloomed in my mind immediately after the announcement of Rhea to make sure to get rid of the threat. I knew that Rhea could see and sense the true emotions felt by anyone be they mortal or immortal.
I knew that I would never have access to the child if Rhea thought rightly so much as an instant that I would hurt them.
So, I used my dominion over time to freeze my emotions. I could not lie to Rhea with emotions of anger and fear but Rhea didn't know that I had planned a counter to her sight.
I did one of the things he was best. I lied to the woman I loved the most and Rhea, sweet Rhea believed me.
To her credit, she didn't immediately lead me to the place where the child was hidden. A child who had been named Poseidon, she would tell me.
I had grovelled for centuries into an underground cavern. I knew how to be patient and my patience was rewarded a month later.
Rhea brought me to a hidden city to my senses, a city in Othrys, in my domain that I wasn't aware of, a city where only the boy was worshipped with effigies and statues everywhere. I could see in the eyes of the inhabitants wild fervour, adoration to the point of madness.
Rhea would lead me to a gigantic temple easily the size of my main castle and there I would meet the child. The child took after Rhea more than Kronos. He had inherited the same shade of green as Rhea. His hair was arranged in unruly curls and waves, a mirror image of his mothers.
When I observed the child, I found little resemblance. It could be argued that the child had inherited a part of my facial structure from which I could not see it. The child was playing with a sword made of ice. The improvised weapon cut with each movement through the air like a razor and left behind his wake miniatures shockwaves.
While the child was playing, I could see a woman, a servant at his side. She was fussing over like him a dragon with its eggs. It was easy to see she wasn't comfortable with the sword in the hand of the child. "My prince," I heard "maybe you should lay down the sword. You could hurt yourself," she pleaded to the child.
The child groaned and turned towards the woman "You worry too much Arne. Nothing will happen".
His gaze met with the eyes of the servant named Arne and he sighed "All right, I'll stop but in exchange, you'll have to cook tonight your wonderful recipe of bull and Ambrosia."
Arne laughed "I'll make it for you tonight my prince so that you may grow to be the strongest, my prince".
"I'm already the strongest," the boy shouted.
Arne kneeled to be at the level of the child "If you were my prince," she said softly. She jumped on the young deity and began to tickle him "You would still not be weak against my wandering hands," she told him.
The child began to laugh "Stop, that's cheating, you can't do that."
"But I can my prince. It means you're not the strongest yet," she told him.
She stopped but the child didn't try to leave her touch contain to remain in her arms. "One day, I'll be the strongest and you'll be at my side, right Arne?" the boy asked her.
"I'll always be there with you my lord, I promise," she answered him.
'Eyes are mirrors of one's true self' I reminded myself. 'You can't hesitate," I said to myself. Something I wasn't sure of told me that leaving that child, this young god alive would assuredly cause the downfall of everything I held dear and myself.
I truly wished there was another way. I thought about what I would have to do and suppressed a gag. Eating my children was the only way I had to ensure their end. If maybe they were lower immortals like nymphs or potamoi or even most of the Titans of the second generation, my scythe would have been enough but they were my children with Rhea, a deity that could go face and win against a primordial. The scythe would have hurt them but I wasn't sure that it could have worked.
With my scythe, there were so many ways for things to go wrong, mistakes that could result in disastrous consequences.
I knew that my father wasn't really gone, turned to nothing. It would take time, millions of years but one day, the primordial god of the sky would come back. I couldn't afford the same thing happening with my children.
I strengthened my resolve and made my presence known with a loud step. The young boy and his caretaker turned towards me.
"Who are you?" The boy asked sounding wary.
"Me? I am your father child, Kronos of Othrys," I answered him.
"We are family," I added
"Then, why do I only meet and learn of your existence now?" The boy questioned.
"Because I did things in the past that I haven't been proud of, that still haunts me and those things child, even though I didn't want to, those things I've done have hurt your mother," I spoke. The best lies were those that weren't lies at all. "She had feared rightfully that those actions could have resulted in me hurting you too."
"But things have changed," I added. "I'm better."
I felt the touch of Rhea on my shoulder "Your father isn't perfect Poseidon but he changed and is here now. Won't you give him a chance?"
I directed my hand to my child. I only needed one touch. The boy hesitated at first before slowly pushing his arm to grab my hand.
It seemed that my task would be easy until I saw a flash, an explosion of kaleidoscopic colours in the eyes of the child.
I only saw such eyes with Krios and Phoebe. Those were the eyes of a seer.
"Mother, he's goi-". The warning the child tried to say was too late. I expanded my dominion over time on all the hidden city and ejected Rhea from it.
Rhea was so much stronger than I was. Erecting a simple barrier would have been pointless but what I could do was to create through my domain an infinite distance between those outside the city and those inside by stopping time around the city.
No one could enter, no one could leave. "My prince, the prince must be protected!" I heard.
I turned to see all the population be they guards, men, children, and women of the city behind him with weapons most make shift. "Arne," what seemed to be a proper soldier clad in armour screamed. "You have to leave with The prince now!"
The girl didn't answer. She instantly scooped the child in her arms and began running. I looked at her going away but didn't worry. Nothing would stop me from accomplishing my task.
"Arne, no!" I heard the boy say. "We can't leave them. He's going to kill them all, Arne, Arne!"
"You can still live if you don't try to stop me. I'm just here for the child. You are all humans only, immortal because of my decree. You have all eternity before you. Don't be foolish," I told them.
My words instead of discouraging them seemed instead to have invigorated them. I saw how their breaths became ragged, how the blood in their veins began to pump, and how their grips tightened over their weapons.
I sighed. "I gave all of you a choice."
I summoned my scythe. "Let's finish this quickly."
With a step, I reappeared between them and with my scythe in hand rotated on my heel. my adamant scythe went through bones and flesh as if they were non-existent.
I could see each detail of how their blood erupted in the air like an ascending wave, how their heads and torsos began to disconnect from their lower bodies how their souls left their bodies, how pointless all of this was.
With another, I ran through a child and a guard. I saw how the contact of my skin with them at the speed I moved made them explode.
I stopped myself and the blood finally finished an arc in the air. I saw how The body parts began to fall in such an agonizing slow way it was almost maddening.
I waited an eternity for the blood to touch the ground and paint it in a dark scarlet. The crowd, well those remaining began to move.
I saw how slowly they tried to walk to where he was. They hadn't even realized what happened. I was a titan, the child of two primordials. How could they stand a chance?
The blood spilling on the ground finally began to produce a noise. They finally began to turn towards me and the carnage I had created.
I watched how fright, how fear took hold of their bodies. I could smell a nauseating odour meaning that one if not many of the remaining members of the crowds had either in fear defecated or pissed themselves.
Not all the blood had unfortunately splashed on the ground. It had fallen on me and dyed my hair a grotesque red. I put my right hand in my blood-soaked hair and felt something solid. I grabbed to inspect and came eye to eye with what seemed to either be some kind of organ or brain matter.
I sighed in annoyance "I'm repeating it again. You don't have to die. Don't put yourselves in my way and nothing will happen to you."
Instead of answering him, they rushed at him with roars. I closed my eyes and whispered, "Such a waste Rhea. Nothing like this would have happened if you hadn't hidden Poseidon".
I knew she could hear me "Kronos, please don't," she begged telepathically. "Why? Why? This is our child. What about what we promised each other so long ago? I know you're still the same god I fell in love with".
I opened my eyes. A sword was a millimetre away from one of them "I told you before that I would not stop. Rhea, I'm sorry that you love me" and with those words, I cut the connection between them.
'Maybe in another world' I thought 'in a 'perfect world,' I would not be feeling this guilt' and with that thought I let time consume everything.
Arne did exist mythologically. According to some myths, Rhea hid Poseidon before hiding Zeus. Kronos was able to discover it. He found Arne the care taker of Poseidon and tried to make her betray Poseidon's location. She didn't so he killed her. When the Olympians became rulers of the world, Poseidon named a city in her honour
Chapter 23
Its ironic the moment I lost to Fate, was when I stopped believing in my ability to break it.
I walked away from the place where thousands of lives once stood, an entire population that had been thriving, turned into ashes.
Time had consumed everything from the people to the plant life to the home to the ground eyes. All of the once-hidden city had turned into ashes. Almost everything I corrected myself.
I didn't have to search long for my child. Everything in a 3-meter radius around him had been untouched.
I could see that Poseidon had thrust his palms forward and that they were smoking as if they had been burnt. Behind him, protected from the attack and left untouched was the caretaker, the servant named Arne.
The child fell painfully on his knees. "My prince, we have to go," I heard the girl say. She was trying to carry the child and flee until she saw me and fear marred her face.
She took from the ground a pitchfork that had been spared from my domain and pointed it at me.
"Brave," I spoke "but foolish".
"Give me the child and no harm will come to you," I told her.
I could see how her limbs shook with dread, how uncertain her footsteps were and how she had more chances to hurt herself than me with the way she carried the improvised weapon she had found.
"Arne, he will end you. Leave, please. Let him take me," Poseidon begged the woman.
"You should listen to him," I added.
The woman closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them back, I saw Steel and already knew her answer. I tightened my grip on my scythe.
"I have always told you my lord that I would always be there with you. I could never leave your side. I know that in the future you'll be the greatest," she told her charge who was now crying.
She began to run towards me. My respect for her rose. I would not use my authority over time to finish her.
With a quick movement, the blade of my scythe cut through the air to meet the flesh of the neck of Arne. I watched how her head fell through the air and fell at Poseidon's side. Alas for Poseidon, it didn't stop here. Like a mockery of Fate, Blood, the blood of Arne was drenched on his face.
"Arne?" The child said softly. Nothing answered him except the head of his caretaker. The child took it as if it was divine and cradled it into his arms. Sobs wrecked the form of the child and ugly tears marred his unworldly features.
I had to stop myself from trying to comfort the child, my child. Guilt began to pool like a poison into my guts. 'You do it for your siblings,' I reminded myself. 'Don't forget that.
My mind went back to the real world, to the sobs of Poseidon. I began to walk towards my child.
Poseidon turned towards me and I saw in his eyes a hatred so deep, so strong that I knew it surpassed the one I had for my father. "YOU!" The voice of Poseidon bellowed and with his anger, the world began to scream.
Howling razors wind flew from the child cutting dents and gouges into the ground. Rain fell angrily on the ground. Gigantic Plants and thorns erupted from the ground under me.
I took a step back to avoid them. I looked around me and saw how the ashes began to clump together making humanoid shapes.
I began to smell the ocean with its distinctive odour of saltwater. As if to confirm my sense of smell, geysers of water exploded from the ground and began to cover everything in my sight.
Worst than everything I just thought, I felt through my domain time being altered. I crushed the guilt in my heart. Poseidon could not be allowed to stay within my kingdom any longer. When two deities shared their domains, the act of usurpation became possible.
Normally it shouldn't be possible to usurp the authority of a god. A deity was his domain, shaped by it. Having your domain usurped would be equivalent to having a core part of yourself removed.
I had been able to see through peeking into the waves of time how the phenomenon happened. Calling it cruelty would be an understatement. The victims who suffered it were left irreversibly broken. Kronos saw how most victims of domain usurpation chose of their own will to encounter, to plunge into Khaos' stomach rather than to continue living a half-life.
I would not allow any possibility of that happening to me.
I focused my attention back on Poseidon. Cracks of light were surging through his skin as if his body was a chrysalis being shed. I could see sparks of green and red lights in the pupils of the child.
Poseidon was trying to take his true form. I activated my authority over time and froze everything. I played with a frozen raindrop in the air with my fingers moving it.
My focus went back to Poseidon. Most of His body was frozen except his eyes, which were moving, his angry and fearful eyes.
I walked until I was just in front of the child. "It's not fair!" the boy uttered.
"You can still speak?" I said feeling surprised. "Impressive," I complimented Poseidon.
I put softly my hand on the cheek of my From another's perspective this might look like the action of a loving father," I thought out loud.
I sighed "Such a joke."
"Poseido-, no child of mine" I corrected myself. "Let this be my first and only lesson to you. The world doesn't care about fairness or unfairness, morality or immorality."
The hateful eyes of my son were turned toward ms seemingly indicating the attention of the child "Only one thing matters and that is strength. Strength is the only truth of the cosmos. Strength is what decides if your actions are just or not. Strength is what allows you to protect the ones you care for."
My jaw bent and grew bigger "If you had been strong enough, none of them would have died. It all happened because you were weak and the weak can't change anything" With those words, I bit into the flesh of Poseidon.
The only thing that Kronos taught Poseidon was that only strength mattered. Is it a surprise that after losing Arne, the people that were worshipping him and this lesson, Poseidon became a piece of shit?
Chapter 24
I removed the time barrier I had put in place around the once-hidden city. I walked toward the edge of it and found a sobbing kneeling Rhea. Tears of red flowed on her skin.
I stopped myself before her. "I told you before that I would never change, that I would always do what I thought was necessary".
"Necessary, this is always the word you use. All this time even though it has hurt so much, I endured because I thought that one day, this nightmare would end, that you'd go back to the Kronos I had loved. He was a child, our child! They were our children!" she cried to me.
"Tell me!" she yelled "What could make the atrocities against our children necessary" She rose from her knees and summoned a sword.
"I know you, Rhea," I said to her. "You would never hurt me".
She laughed "You're right. I would never hurt you". Her sword turned into an enflamed spear.
Rhea began to talk and my Ichor went cold "Right now, Hyperion is in the main castle of Othrys due to a rapport he wants to give you. Mnemosyne is in the surroundings teaching the denizens of Othrys about the symbols, the letters she said to have created. Theia was bored and had decided to follow Mnemosyne. Krios like most of the time is in your castle and Phoebe like always is with him. Coincidently, the other cardinal lords of Othrys decided to report to you like Hyperion what happened in their zones of influence. Atlas like the good dog he is, is guarding with his soldiers your castle."
"You're right Kronos. I could never bring myself to hurt you." Her spear became brighter, shining in an ominous hungry light "But your siblings, they aren't you and I can assure you that them being a breed of higher deities, of Titans won't save them from anhiliation and Nothing you can do will stop me."
"Don't do this Rhea" I heard myself beg.
"All those times when I threatened to end your existence, fear didn't cross your features but now that it is the lives of your siblings, of those more important than everything in your eyes, more important than your children," her voice softened "than me, now I can see it clear as I see Phanes and Khaos, you look so pathetic Kronos. Tell me the true reason why you thought it was necessary to end the lives of our children and maybe I'll spare your sibling's lives."
I began to tell her the truth "It is because of a prophecy not only given to Koios but also to Phoebe. I had told you once that they had seen my end and the end of Othrys." I looked at her to see if she remembered. I saw recognition in her eyes.
"Continue talking" Rhea commanded.
"The ones that were seen in it, the cause of the downfall of Otrhys, of us Titans were deities, gods and goddesses that looked like you and me, that called me Father. This is why I did what I did. I hated it, especially with Hestia. I loved her with all my heart, you know that Rhea." A scowl bloomed on Rhea's face at my words.
I saw The grip of Rhea tighten on the spear and for a brief moment, I feared she would make true of her threat. The spear snapped in half in Rhea's palm and fizzled out into nothing.
I looked at Rhea and how fragile she seemed. She looked as if she had been broken as if she was exhausted beyond measure.
She whispered yet I heard her words as if they had penetrated directly into my mind. "I remember a young deity, facing a primordial, facing the impossible and fighting until he triumphed. I saw that day a young man who swore to be better than the father he had. This young man that I fell in love with died a long time ago and I had been too dumb not to realize that. I dreamt of something long past gone and when confronted with the reality of its loss tried to continue dreaming and lying to myself."
"I am pregnant," she told me. "I thought about announcing it to you today with Poseidon. It's not possible anymore because my son like all his older siblings is in your stomach and I don't even know if they are still alive in the prison you put them in. Don't worry, I won't try anything with this child like I did with Poseidon. I will give them to you when they're born and leave forever. I can't look at you without being disgusted yet I know I will never stop loving you."
She leaned to whisper in my right ear "You were the greatest mistake of my life Kronos. I hope with all my heart for Fate to find a way, for the prophecy to be realized."
She retreated from my ear and gave me a chaste kiss on the mouth before disappearing in ascending motes of light.
It began raining on the now desolate city. It was as if the world itself cried for the tragedy that had occurred. I touched my face and found it wet. I wondered if there were tears or raindrops even though I thought the latter. I felt empty and after all that happened, I didn't know if I was able to cry anymore.
Chapter 25
A haze took over the next months a hold on my mind. Every action be it walking or talking felt like an exhausting chore. I passed most of his time in his quarters relegating the governance of Othrys to my siblings and Atlas.
I saw concern grow in the eyes of my remaining siblings. "Are you alright brother?" they would always ask.
I would always answer with an "everything's fine" but instead of alleviating their concerns, it seemed to grow them.
Before, my siblings would only all unite in my castle for a great celebration or important matter concerning Othrys.
That wasn't the case anymore. My siblings would always come to me and try to bring me into one of their activities.
Mnemosyne would come and rant to me about arcane mysteries, about strange contraceptions and objects she created. I would close my eyes and listen and her voice would act as a lullaby for me.
Hyperion and Theia would always come with gifts, things of value and beautiful and stunning objects discovered or made in the part of Othrys they ruled. I would wake up with something added to my room and the shine and vanity of the object would immediately tell me that Hyperion or Theia or maybe the both of them came.
Krios would come and say nothing. He would just stay at my side without any question, any judgement. He would look at me with such care in his eyes that it made me tear up once, something I thought I wasn't capable of anymore.
Themis, just and lawful Themis, supreme judge of Othrys with her domain of divine law that like Rhea and Tethys abhorred my actions but unlike them, understood their necessity would come, place my head on her knees and sing softly for me.
Iapetus would come to my side and read stories, tales of foreign realms to me, about their gods, their heroes and their monsters. His soft but firm voice would allow me while Lapetus was there to forget about Rhea for a moment.
Dione would come with her doves. The avian beings and their mistress would come and hug me making for an instant fade the never-ending exhaustion that always plagued me.
On a rare day, when none of my siblings were there with me, I heard a voice, her voice call me. "Now is the time Kronos," she would tell me. "Let's finally end this," with this declaration, the voice faded.
I didn't need to be told where she was. With a thought, I disappeared from Othrys to reappear on a familiar island, our island, where everything between the two of us truly began and where it was natural for things to end.
She was there, her feet in the water turned away from me carrying a wailing babe in a bundle of silks.
I walked to her side. "You look horrendous," she said to me.
He looked at his reflection in the water. In the past, he was a dashing god who induced respect, lust and envy at those seeing him. What had taken his place was a frail-looking old man with a ton long pointy beard, dull golden eyes and a receding hairline.
"You're not wrong," I replied. "I would have probably been worse if not for the others."
"The ones you chose. I hope for your sake they never leave or turn against you," Rhea told me.
"I have faith in them. I know they won't," I said to her.
"Don't rely on only faith unless you want to be disappointed. Faith alone isn't enough. You taught me this," she answered.
She pushed the bundle of silk towards me "Here's the child."
I took the child into my arms and began to inspect him. "What did you call him?" I asked her.
"Zeus," she spoke softly "I called him Zeus."
"I won't stay to see you swallow the child." She turned away from me.
"So this is truly the end? Everything's going to end m now like this?" I asked her.
She didn't turn to face me. "I'm tired of this Kronos. I can't deal with and endure all of this anymore. If it makes you feel better I'm not sure I could ever love again like I did and still love you."
"If I could be different, I would. If the world was different, kinder, perfect, I wouldn't have done any of it. I only wished to spend eternity with you at my side. I wanted to be a better father than Ouranos. I would if I could," I whispered.
"Perfect worlds don't exist Kronos. They're only dreams, lies and illusions we tell ourselves could exist to escape the guilt and the wretched reality we live in. The truth Kronos, is that this is it and let me assure you." She faded out of existence, the mental link they shared since their wedding severed.
"It won't get better" her voice whispered. I felt a light touch on my lips and with it, I was left alone on the island with my next victim.
I tried to put a lid on my emotions but was unable to. "killing me would have been kinder Rhea," I murmured.
I focused back on the child with his electric blue eyes that reminded me of a past nightmare. I opened my mouth and swallowed.
Scene*
As Rhea had promised me, I never saw her again. Even though I could search for her, I restricted myself from doing so. After all, what would be the point after all? I wasn't strong enough to change the past. Nothing I would say or do would be able to repair the fracture between us except giving back the children I had swallowed, children I didn't even know if they were still alive or had faded in my stomach, children that were also prophecied to dethrone me.
"Kronos," I heard.
I turned my gaze to the direction of the voice and found Hyperion. Usually, the elder Titan never truly talked. He just placed in the chamber of Kronos objects he found of great value and splendour. "Yes?" I forced myself to answer.
"A feast had been organised by nymphs. I think it would be good for you to come," Hyperion told me.
"You know feasts aren't something I love to frequent brother," I answered him.
"Please, brother" Hyperion begged, "come with me."
I sighed "Go alone Hyperion. I'm sorry but I can't."
"Understood brother," the older Titan said dejectedly.
Hyperion sat at my side and stayed in silence "I thought you were supposed to go to the feast," I spoke.
"I was supposed to but only boring immortals go to feasts alone and unfortunately, my dear little brother doesn't care about his lonely older brother," Hyperion whined.
"I know what you're trying to do and it won't work. With the way you behave you'd think that you were the youngest when it's not the case at all," I told him.
"Please," my brother begged.
"No, Hyperion," I answered.
"Please," the older Titan repeated.
"I already said no Hyperion" I said to him.
"Please, brother! Please!" Hyperion whined to me like a child.
I raised my right hand in the air "Stop, you're giving me a headache, something that should normally be impossible for a deity. Fine, I will come with you."
I was manhandled and had my breath knocked out of my lungs "Thank you so much, brother. I knew I could count on you."
Hyperion released me onto the bed and turned away to begin to rummage through one of the giant closets in my room where he liked to put the ton of clothes he gifted to me.
"Found it," my brother said in triumph and turned to face me with something in his hands. The clothes he had chosen were a Peplos of purple colour with spots of deep black that created an intricate pattern resembling a scythe. To complete the outfit was a Himation of purples and white.
My brother threw them at me "I assure you that you should wear them."
I touched the Peplos with my fingers trying to discern the origin of the fabric "I could have just created clothes with my powers. I've never understood why you or the others obsess over things you don't need."
"The answer to your question is simple Kronos. We do so because we can. Where is the gratification, where is the joy when you can directly have it? These clothes, these jewels, this luxury, because of them, most of our subjects and of our family except the other elders see me as vapid. They don't understand all of these things are art pieces, masterfully created with effort, expertise, suffering and courage. I wear them, these testaments to the living to remind everyone and myself that I'm truly living, not just surviving anymore."
"I show them," he continued "through these things, I am no longer restricted, that the world and its wonders are in my grasp, that I'm bright and don't have to hide it because of fear for my siblings and me. I wear them under this false sky to show I'm not afraid anymore. I wear them instead of creating them with my powers because it is something I couldn't have imagined in the past when we were hiding within the depths of our mother that could one day do."
"All of this brother," he said "is because of you. I don't care if you do the most vile things. I won't ever judge you because of your actions. Even if in the future, your love towards us turns into hatred, I will still love you and try to stay by your side," Hyperion declared.
"Sometimes, I feel like I don't know what I'm even doing. Nothing seems to make sense anymore," I admitted.
"It's okay if, for you, this world doesn't make sense anymore. I always thought that the world was mad but it's okay." Hyperion came close to me and kissed the crowned of my head "It doesn't matter if the world doesn't make any sense. As long as we have each other, I know that everything will be alright".
Hyperion clapped his hands "Enough talking. We have a feast to attend to. Go wear them."
"Alright," I answered him walking toward one of the dressing rooms of my chamber. "Thanks you Hyperion," I said.
"For what?" Hyperion asked.
A chuckle escaped me. I didn't deserve them "Forget it."
scene*
The feast had been organized by an Oceanid which meant that the event would occur near a large body of water.
I followed Hyperion as we flew towards the place of the feast. We could have teleported but according to Hyperion, it would have been boring and supposedly there was nothing better than arriving late.
I watched Hyperion's form dance into the sky. He swooped through trees, surfed on clouds and sometimes chose to fly extremely close to the ground.
The scenery went past us as we tore through the air "We're almost there brother," Screamed Hyperion. "Prepare yourself to land".
"Understood," I replied.
Like Hyperion had said we had been close to our destination. Not thirty seconds after the words of my older brother, my vision was assaulted by bright lights and mortals and immortals alike who seemed to be lost in the grips of lust and revelry.
We stopped just above "Don't tell me you brought me to an orgy Brother. I thought it would just be a normal feast," I told him.
Hyperion laughed "But this is a normal feast in Othrys brother."
"The ones we organized were never like this," I replied.
"They were like this. It's just that you never paid attention to them," Hyperion said to me.
"We also didn't try to involve you because we knew you were fixated on Rhea," Hyperion added.
Hearing her name felt as if I had been punched in the guts. My reaction must have been evident because my brother grabbed Kronos's face "No thinking about her. We're here to have a good time."
I took a deep breath and nodded. He touched softly my forefront with his before retreating. "Let's go down," he spoke. I nodded.
Hyperion and I began to lower ourselves until our feet touched the ground. The participants of the feasts had stopped for a moment due to our arrival and after seeing that there was no problem or any other disruption went back to enjoying themselves.
An attractive oceanid walked towards us. "My lords," she curtsied. "The presence of you two here my lords, is a pleasure. However, I thought your lady wife would also be present my lord Hyperion?"
"Unfortunately that won't be the case," Hyperion answered her. "She told me that she was too busy dealing with matters of Othrys as if she couldn't duplicate herself but it is what is. Even though my wife wasn't able to come, I was able to bring my brother. Were you able to accomplish the task I gave you Asterodia?" Hyperion asked her.
"Yes my lord we did," the nymph answered. As if it was a signal, a woman appeared, who seemed to be a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys due to the smell of saltwater that followed her arrival.
I looked at the new arrival and all of my thoughts went into disarray. She looked like Rhea or as close as it was possible to look like her for something less divine "Allow me my lords to present my sister Philyra."
"You did well as always Asterodia," Hyperion said to the nymph.
He turned towards me "I'll leave the two of you alone. For an instant stop thinking about the past and the future. Allow yourself to feel and experience the present."
Hyperion began to walk away accompanied by Asterodia. "I can not wait to see what company you've arranged for me this time".
"We prepared men and women to attend you, lord Hyperion, I'm sure you'll find them enjoyable," I heard her say before their voices began indistinguishable from the voices around them.
My attention went back to the nymph, to the false rhea that was now presenting her hand to me waiting for it to be grabbed.
Could I really do this? I knew what would happen if I grabbed her hand. Even though Rhea and I weren't together anymore, even though we probably would never be together again, our mental link and our marriage had been dissolved, it still felt like a betrayal not only to Rhea but also to myself.
'Stop thinking about the past and the future,' I remembered the words of his brother. Maybe I would regret my actions later or maybe I wouldn't. I would in this moment focus only on the present.
I grabbed her hand letting our fingers intertwine. I let myself be directed by her. We passed through rowdy and drunk humans and lower divine beings. I followed behind as we walked for what seemed to be an eternity. I allow myself to forget about the departure of Rhea, about the time I made her cry. I imagined that the Oceanid I was following was instead my wife.
I ignored how her hair was bone straight instead of thick curls ringlets and waves. I ignored how wrong her skin felt to the touch.
I ignored how the ocean green of her eyes could never be compared to the shining unearthly emeralds of Rhea.
We were ascending I realized. The air felt different and the voices and the noises they made seemed to begin to be more and more away.
"We are here my lord," Rhea said.
"Call me Kronos," I told her.
"Understood Kronos," Rhea answered.
We were at the top of the mountain where the feast was happening. From where we were I could see that we were surrounded by large bodies of water. As a matter of fact, on each flank, the sea and a rounded gulf could be seen.
"It is beautiful and so much calmer," I surprised myself by saying.
"I am so glad you think so Kronos," Rhea said.
I turned towards her to see that while I was looking at the landscape, she had been looking at me as if she was examining me.
There were so many things I wanted to say to her. I wanted to apologize for swallowing their children, I wanted to tell Rhea how her absence made me feel as if my heart had been torn away from my chest.
I was unable to because Rhea kissed me. I ignored how different it felt. I ignored the strange ache in my chest. i ignored the wrongness I felt and kissed her back.
Here comes chiron. Philyra is the mother of Chiron. I also hope you like the dynamics between Kronos and his siblings
Chapter 26
I woke up to the shining light of my nephew Helios. My head pounded as if a hammer was slamming into it. I rolled to my side and my gaze fell on a feminine sleeping form.
I remembered in this moment everything that happened and how in a moment of weakness, I had decided to copulate with the nymph named Philyra, how I had tricked myself into thinking it was Rhea when I knew deep down all along that it wasn't the truth.
Shame swept through my veins. All of this was the fault of Hyperion I wanted to scream but I knew that this thought was a falsehood.
I could have said no at any time. I could have gone back to Othrys. I could try to justify my past actions but it's not as if I had been forced, stripped of any agency.
At my side, The oceanid began to awake leaving the kingdom of Hypnos, the child of the night. I looked at her and had to restrict the disgust, the desire to puke I felt when I looked at her.
I felt stained in a way even the worst actions I took in the past with my children could not compare.
"Morning Kronos," the nymph said. "I hope you liked last night as much as I did."
I turned away from her. I knew that if I had continued to look at her, there were chances of me doing something a logical part of me thought that the Oceanid wouldn't deserve.
I felt her touch on my shoulder and I felt as if I had been burnt. "It doesn't have to be one time Kronos," she whispered in one of my ears.
I stood up extracting myself away from her touch. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"It was a mistake, all of what happened was a mistake," I told her. "I have a wife!"
"You had a wife Kronos," she answered.
Shock spread through my body "How do you know?" I asked her.
She stood up and came close to me. Her face was millimetres away from mine. I could feel her soft breath. Vivid flashes of memories of what they had done swept through my mind.
"We all know of the king, of the Titan lord of Othrys that became a shadow of his once glorious self. Whispers in the winds, rumours in the Earth speak of the disappearance of the presence of Lady Rhea from the protective wards and from all of Othrys."
She leaned forward, near my left ear "They speak of a king without a queen."
I couldn't stop myself. I erupted in mad laughter. I laughed as if it would be the last time I would be able to as if the funniest joke known to existence had been said to me.
She looked at me now with wariness as if she had finally realized that she was a fawn that had voluntarily jumped into the dwelling place of Kampe and other fool children of Nyx.
"You?" I spoke more amused than everything "You want to be Queen. You seriously think that because of one night we shared, I would make you queen?"
She hid her wariness and uncertainty behind a mask of self-assurance. Unfortunately for her, I had been able to see under it and nothing she would now do would be able to trick me "I am pregnant with a child my lord," she spoke looking at me in the eyes.
That was all? That was her ace in her sleeve? A child. How stupid and idiotic of her. "You must be really new to the surface. Let me guess, you saw the oceans that your parents, my siblings ruled and saw no place for anyone else than them so you came to the surface world."
I began to walk around her like a predator stalking its prey "Fortunately for you, you were beautiful. Even more fortunate, you learnt that you looked like my wife and if it wasn't enough good luck I'm sure you thought, your sister invited you to a feast where I'll be present to attend me. Unfortunately for you, there is just one thing it seems you didn't learn. Do you know why my wife left?" I asked her.
"I don't, I don't know," she admitted.
"It's the worst kept secret of all Othrys. I swallowed my children as if they were pigs," I revealed to her.
I saw the horror in her eyes and how pale she became, how she took without thinking a step back. I took a step forward and she took another one back. It continued until she had her back to nothing, a single step remaining for her to plunge into the sea. "I bit into their flesh, their ichor erupted in my mouth like the sweetest delight, their screams a symphony to my ears," I lied.
"I did it to the children of the deity I loved. I never tried to directly hurt Rhea because I loved her but you? You disgust me". I put one of his palms on her belly, on the place where she said my child rested.
What she didn't know was that the prophecy about my demise only concerned children that I had with Rhea. It was a detail I had wanted to be sure of when I had learned it for the first time.
The girl though didn't know. She knew that even if she tried, there were no chances of her escaping a child of Ouranos. She was whispering prayers to who knows begging for her life.
I retreated away from her and turned away from her. Behind me, I heard her fall to her knees. "Don't play games that could easily be the cause of your end," I told her.
My form began to shine gold and disappear in motes of golden light.
"What am I supposed to do about that child?" she yelled at me.
"In the end, it's your choice. Terminate them before they are born if you want. Raise them if you want. Just Don't expect me to one day take care of the result of my greatest error," I said to Philyra before reappearing in my chambers in Othrys.
Even though I would always regret this night, even though I could try to say that it was the fault of my brother, a part of me couldn't stop to say that it was all Rhea's fault. If Rhea had still been there, nothing would have happened with the Oceanid. If Rhea was still there, I would not feel as if my heart had been savagely extracted from my chest.
Things couldn't go on like this. I could not let grief over something I could never have again, heartbreak over her, stop me from going forward.
This time, it had just been an overreaching Nymph. Next time, it could be worse. Would I fail my siblings because Rhea was mentioned? Fail them more than I already had?
Rhea, I knew would always be my first and only love but it was time for me to stop thinking about the past. Time always marched forward. Dreams were lies, ungraspable things made to cope, to escape from reality.
I looked at myself in a mirror. I looked at the golden ichor I could still see on my skin. I ignored I accusing reflections of five pairs of eyes. Kronos walked away dismissing them. My form stopped before an obsidian throne, one he had left. A throne that was more than a physical thing, it represented Othrys, the Titans and our golden age.
I sat on it. Vigour and strength flooded my bones. An old weight, the one from the false sky that I had almost forgotten made itself known. I closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Heavy are crowns" my father had told him. That was alright. Kronos was used to enduring. Kronos opened his eyes back to the world. It was to stop dreaming.
Scene*
Things went back to almost the way they were before. When my siblings had seen me on my throne, they had acted as if it was a familiar sight, even though it was something that hadn't occurred for more than a decade.
For a decade, I had neglected my duties, my siblings, and my throne because I had been stuck dreaming and I had forgotten what mattered the most. I felt that the only good thing that had resulted from following Hyperion had been remembering this fact.
I made sure to fire all the servants of my palace and replace them, something I should have done a long time ago because it had become clear that they heard and talked too much.
If it had been up to me, no one except myself, my siblings, and Atlas would have been permitted to enter my palace but Phoebe and Mnemosyne had talked against this idea so I accepted to support the presence of servants.
I made sure when I was back that a special organization was created to spy, control and monitor the people of Othrys. They answered only to me.
They searched among the population for any signs of dissent and its source before crushing it. Through them, I conveyed messages, things I wanted the subjects of my realm to think.
Even though the population has always been obedient, precautions could never be errors. Astraios, my direct nephew Had held resentment in his heart for all the elder titans.
I was sure that he wasn't the only one. If Astraios hadn't drunk too much, I would have never known and that ignorance, that lack of control over the things that could harm me and my siblings was what I feared.
My sister Mnemosyne would say that it was not necessary, too cruel but what she could not understand, what I hadn't understood until now was that cruelty and violence were a necessity, that they were the barebone of stability and order.
Yet even with all of my actions, even with everything seeming to go in the right way, I still felt uneasy.
I didn't know why but something in my mind whispered to me that something was wrong. I had gone to Phoebe and Koios but they had been unable to help me.
It went to the point that I tried to peer into the rivers of time even though it meant attracting hisattention, becoming both more and less. My only finding was that my sight had been deliberately obstructed, something that could only be done by a greater being.
I felt like an ant being played with by greater beings. I felt like Fate was laughing at me, playing with me as a child would do with a doll. I knew that even if I had known, that nothing would change. In the end, everything bowed to the will of Ananke, the Great Serpent.
Hyperion had decided like he always did to organize a celebration, an endless one that would last for weeks he had said. Hyperion said that our subjects felt scared.
For the first time Since thousands of years of our reigns, the borders of Othrys were closed, the king had been the cause of the demise of his heir, an heir that had before erased her direct cousin from existence, while at the same time hurting thousands with her flames. One of the Uranides that had also fought against the Skyfather didn't leave her domain anymore, and the Queen of Othrys had also left.
Hyperion went on to state, that he wanted to distract them and make them forget for a brief moment because when all of those things were taken into consideration together, it made our kingdom look unstable and a visibly unstable kingdom was one that no one was truly loyal to, something that could be dangerous.
Even though we, as children of Ouranos and Gaia were by far the strongest beings in Othrys, as we had shown with our father, even ants with enough fear and despair could kill a god.
It was while that celebration happened that I saw him. He looked young and not in a young-looking-because-chosen-to-do-so. It was the kind of youth that could not be reproduced perfectly, that was real and not made.
He had electric blue eyes that reminded me of the agony of lightning travelling through his veins.
He had soft features that would be expected to be seen as a deity of beauty. He had hair so dark that it seemed almost azure. Worse than everything, he looked familiar, as if he was a missing piece to a puzzle I had been trying to decipher.
The young god looked like me and I had to restrict myself from summoning my scythe. Something in me cried out both in fright and longing looking at as I looked at the youth.
"Who is he?" I asked pointing to the young god to one of the wandering servants.
"He's the child of an Oceanid and apparently one of the baseborn children of lord Hyperion," the servant said the head bowed.
Maybe I saw things where they were nothing, maybe I was too paranoid but dread filled me when I watched the boy as if I was in front of a threat.
I could not let the young god disappear. I turned towards the still-bowing servant "From now until the end of the celebration, this boy will be the cupbearer of my siblings and me. Inform him of his new station and prepare him for his new duties," I said to the servant.
"Your desire will be done my lord," the servant said before walking toward the young god with blue eyes.
A cupbearer was someone who was always supposed to be in the presence of his masters. It'll allow me to observe the young god. In case my instincts were right, my scythe would be plunged into the flesh of the blue-eyed deity. If that wasn't the case, nothing would happen to him.
scene*
The name of the young god, The young god who was our new cupbearer was Dios. His siblings hadn't understood my decision but they had accepted it.
They looked at the young god and deemed it impossible for him to be a threat. The young god was always on my right side with a giant Urn full of Nectar that he would serve each time he was called.
More than being a cupbearer, the young god had a sharp and vast intellect with which he created incredible stories and tales for my siblings and me.
He knew how to use his voice to charm, comfort and inject vigour in those who listened to him when he was singing.
When he danced, it felt less as if it was a corporal action and more like The unfolding of a masterpiece full of grace, a craft that could not be attained even with thousands of years of work. None of his movements were wasted. No tension could be seen or felt through his frame.
I was able to see how Dios by his actions, his presence and his beauty made lust and infinite desire bloom into the eyes of my siblings.
I felt pity and guilt when one morning, I saw ugly bruises on the pale flesh of the young god and saw him walk with difficulty as if he had been injured.
The joy and the looks Hyperion and Theia gave the young child made me understand who were the culprits. I had asked the young deity why he hadn't tried to heal from the marks, the remaining signs of what happened. Dios would answer "I didn't because your Lord brother and his lady wife wanted me to keep them."
"Doesn't it anger you?" I had asked. "Don't you wish that it hadn't happened?"
"It is the way of the world, my king," Dios had answered.
"That wasn't an answer," I told him.
I looked at him, at his blue eyes that had become hollow, to his vacant stare as if he was a doll reminiscing about past things. His innocence, the one that permeated him had been marred like black paint that had been launched on a canvas of white. He looked broken and Kronos didn't know why but my heart lurched in agony at the sight.
Something in me wanted to hold the young god in my arms and tell him that nothing would ever hurt him again, that he was safe. The Words of comfort I wanted to give stayed stuck inside As Dios walked away called by one of my siblings, he walked like a god going toward annihilation.
The following day, another bruise was added to the skin of the young deity. Even with those marks, signs of violated flesh, Dios walked with his head held high continuing to serve my siblings and me, sing and dance for us.
My trust or maybe it was pity for the young God grew. My doubts about Dios began to diminish day after day until they disappeared.
I had seen Dios as inoffensive, too soft and meek, incapable of hurting in any way others. I had seen him as the kind of person who would always accept the wickedness of the world and instead of fighting it would bow to it.
I had been wrong. I should have known how even a lamb when feeling hopeless would fight until the end. I should have known that acceptance didn't mean fear.
It had been evident that we had grown to trust Dios. We had also grown prideful. We had thought that with most of us present, nothing could happen.
We were the Titans, reached beyond their station and felled a primordial god. We were the Uranides, children of Gaia and Ouranos, immortal rulers of Othrys and poison would be the beginning of their end.
I would later remember laughter, vivid light and a drink before a mind-breaking pain made itself known to me.
I remember burning from the inside. I remember vomiting for what felt like an eternity.
When I began to come back to my senses, it was to see to my horror five figures, five faces that had haunted me and that I had hoped to never see again.
"Brother," they called Dios and at that, moment I realized Rhea had tricked me. The ones that the prophecies had marked as the end of our reign, the harbingers of the end of the Titans were before me.
They turned to look at my siblings and me and fear seized my heart. I could still feel the poison inside me. Even though I was burning it from the inside with my divi,nity I was for now vulnerable.
I think that I would be able to do anything to protect my siblings or me if my children decided to attack us.
We had been saved by the arrival of Atlas who had felt that something was amiss and barged into our throne room accompanied by soldiers.
My children decided to flee upon Atlas's arrival, by transforming into birds. No soldier was able to successfully prevent them from escaping.
It would be the beginning of a war that would last ten long tortuous years where I would lose everything, the first Titanomachy.
The day after, I would order the mobilization of every one of my subjects in Othrys. I looked at them from a high balcony. They were innumerable. It looked as if they were more numerous than the stars.
I could see amongst them children and adults, humans, Nymphs, Neuris, Daemons, Potamois and Titans of the second generation. Their chatter echoed everywhere like a thunder strike.
I looked to my right side where I knew Atlas's gaze would meet with mine and nodded. Atlas nodded back before giving a signal to his soldiers.
The noise of the crowd was cut short by a string of resonating sounds, ones of steel
of steel against steel.
I used my authority over the winds to enhance the sound of my voice "I've assembled all of you here due to a grave and important menace that threaten us, one that could mean the end of Othrys, our beloved kingdom!"
Whispers of fear began to rise from the crowd "More than two decades ago I received a prophecy that foretold my end, and the end of Othrys."
"It can't happen!" screamed members of the crowd.
"There must be a solution!" they shouted.
Without me having to say it, The soldiers of Atlas knocked their spears against their shields dissipating again the noise of the crowd.
"The prophecy," I continued after the crowd turned silent "showed me who would be the culprits. Those culprits, those that would destroy our Kingdom and all of its prosperity were my own children! I prayed to every higher being for it to be false. When my wife Rhea gave birth to our first child, Hestia, I committed a grave mistake. I loved her, and with that love, I nearly brought doom to everything I held dear. My daughter permanently erased her own cousin from existence, from reforming her own cousin, I knew I was wrong when she hurt thousands in that action and didn't care."
I took a breath, closed my eyes and took another deep breath before reopening them. "At that moment, I did what was necessary, what I should have done. I looked into the eyes of my firstborn and swallowed her for Othrys, for all of you! I did that action again and again and again because it was necessary!"
"Many saw and still see it as cruelty but those who dare to judge me, I want to ask them what else could I have done!?! What else could have done to not have the ichor of my own children plastered on my skin?!" I yelled.
"What else?!" I repeated. I looked at the crowd and saw most of them looking at the ground in shame. They must be thinking about their whispers, their rumours and how stupid they were.
"Unfortunately, things didn't end here. The menace, the reason why I brought all of you here is that my children whom I thought I had permanently dealt with have been set free to the world at large due to treachery," I shouted at the crowd.
I saw understanding and fear bloom in the features of my subjects. "They are prophesied to bring the end of this era, of the reigns of the Uranides and it seems that we have already lost. The clever thing to do would be to wait for our annihilation."
Murmurs of concern erupted from those below him. "That would be the clever thing, the wise thing but the truth is that I'm not wise. We, Uranides fought against our father, a primordial, the sky itself and we won! We did the impossible, the unthinkable. I think, no I know that we can make another miracle. I don't care about what fate had decreed! I don't care about what Ananke has written into the fabric of reality! I won't let myself fade away without a fight! I won't let what we all built be destroyed! I will fight until the last drop of Ichor into my veins is extinguished!"
My voice rose in volume "I ask you, would fight not for me or my siblings but for Othrys? Would all of you fight for your siblings, kin, parents and friends? Would you all fight with me so that the Golden Age that we all built endure?"
"We will fight", "we will fight", "we will fight", WE WILL FIGHT" the crowd chanted.
I would not allow my golden age to end. It didn't matter who I would face. I would crush everything that barred my way.
scene*
All of Othrys was in a frenzy of activities. After my speech, almost the entire population enlisted to fight against the threat to their livelihoods.
I entered the throne room to see the armour-clad form of Atlas and my siblings. They were almost all there "They didn't come?" I asked even if he already knew the answer.
My siblings looked at each other before Iapetus answered "They won't. Neither Oceanus nor Tethys would come. We also learnt from a loyal Oceanid that they have ordered all denizens of the sea to come back to the sea."
I sighed "I expected that from Tethys. This means that we can't count on the sea in this war," I concluded.
"A war?" said Hyperion. His armour lit up in a golden blaze "I won't let it become one."
Hyperion rose from his throne "I know where they are. I asked Phanes and he answered me." He began to walk away "I'll come with you," I told him.
Hyperion stayed still, his back turned toward me "You won't brother."
"Why?" I asked. "They are my errors, my responsibility."
"I agree with my lord uncle my king," Atlas said.
"you have to understand brother," Mnemosyne spoke, "that you are Othrys, you are the Titans and the Titans are you and I don't say it in a poetic way."
She extended her left hand and opened her palm. A miniaturized version of Othrys appeared hovering in the air "The laws we made, the authority that had been granted to us, the land, the people, even we are linked to you Kronos."
The image of Othrys began to morph into my face. I inspected the image "How?" I finally asked.
"It's because of mother or maybe it would be more accurate to say that it is because of what she did," Mnemosyne said.
"Kronos, our authority is not one that was given to us or that we were born with. It is something that we usurped. The mantle ruler has been yours since the moment your scythe plunged into our Father's heart" Iapetus explained.
"What Mother has done, can be seen as recognition, as an acknowledgement of you succeeding our father. You chose that day to share that authority with us but according to the laws of Khaos, you are the actual proprietary. If anything happened to us, it would be salvageable but if your children were able to do the same thing to you as you did to our father or something similar we would all be affected," spoke Themis.
"We connected ourselves and our children to Othrys by accepting its law into our very essence. Othrys made us greater than what we were in many ways but it also made us vulnerable," said Iapetus.
"Kronos," the voice of Hyperion boomed. "It has always been you that had to fight, it has already been you that had to suffer and do things you hated for us. I'm tired of this state of affairs. I ask you this brother do you trust us?"
"I do," I answered without batting an eye.
"So for once, let us bear your sins, let us bear your weight. As long as you believe in us, we won't lose!" spoke Hyperion.
The rest of his siblings all stood up from their thrones. "Maybe this will just take a night or maybe a millennia. We will never give up on Othrys, on you Kronos," said Theia.
"So for once, let your older siblings do what needs to be done my King," spoke Koios.
"It's not as if I could convince you, can I?" I chuckled. "I'll be here in Othrys waiting for each of you. I swear before Khaos, the Heavens and the Earth that I won't join you on the battlefield against my children in this war." I felt a little smile bloom on my face "Even after all these years, I'm still not as good at communicating as I would like to. I try to show it by my actions but I want you to know, that I love all of you. You have already made your king proud. Your goal is to crush my traitorous children and come back. That's an order!"
"Yes my king," they answered before they all left the throneroom in waves of blurring light. I sat on my throne. I put my elbow on one of the golden armrests of my obsidian throne and leaned on my fist. I closed my eyes. I would wait here until they all came back. I ignored the doubts and the whispers of time in the back of my mind. My siblings would win, and everything would be alright.
scene*
The war against my children lasted 10 years. In the beginning, it seemed as if it would have been a short thing.
After all, it was the world against my children, Othrys against six children. They may have been my children with Rhea but they had been painfully young, and unaware of the ways of the world, and of war.
They should have lost and there were multiple times when reports and my gaze indicated they would, but each time, something would happen, and circumstances would change. Allowing all of my children to escape, survive, and continue fighting.
Worst, they made allies. People who hated the reign of my siblings and me, ancient enemies who had been imprisoned, opportunists, joined the banner of Kronos children.
The presence of the Hecatoncheires and the Cyclops they had freed gave them a chance to fight back for the first time rather than flee.
I saw how Hestia's flames swallowed hundreds of thousands of immortals not even leaving ashes behind her.
I saw how Demeter and Poseidon only by themselves superseded the authorities of the members of my army over the earth.
I saw how Hades opened gashes into the void of Khaos before throwing in my soldiers.
I saw how Zeus made the earth and sky tremble with his lightning bolts reminding me of a primordial god.
I saw how Hera created curses and scourges that even Nyx would baulk at and inflicted those curses on her enemies.
I saw how the world bent with each of Poseidon's steps. I saw how just for a moment the sky turned into an ocean. I saw how the young god laughed and continued to fight even as his body was broken, and viciously tore through my army, how he made their ichor boil from the inside.
I learnt with fright that after each confrontation, my children grew stronger. Each fight made them bolder, more violent, more powerful.
My armies won fewer and fewer victories. Little by little, my children were able to force stalemates, and then they began to win.
Worse than everything, Titans of the second generation, the descendants of my siblings joined them. Helios and Selene betrayed them plunging the entire kingdom of Othrys into darkness by creating an eternal eclipse.
Prometheus and Epimetheus joined my children soon after. They would not be our last kin to join them like with Hekate.
I had to watch unable to do anything due to the oath I made to my siblings how my children began to win the war.
It began when they found a way to trap Iapetus by isolating him from the soldiers under his banner. The immortality that permeated all of the denizens of Othrys was fuelled by both me and my brother.
My authority over time made sure that the denizens of Othrys didn't grow older and they stayed in perfect physical condition.
The role of Iapetus's authority was to make sure the soul would be unable to leave the body due to an exterior factor.
Such a system was only possible because of their shared authority over Othrys and their respective domains. It was a kept secret only known to my siblings and I.
My children shouldn't have known but were able to learn the truth through Hecate who was able to discover it with her magic.
Iapetus was strong and his domain made him a nightmare to fight against but even Iapetus with all of his strength could not fight against all my children and win.
In the end, the one who was left bloodied and defeated in a pool of Ichor with weapons nailing him to a rock was my older brother.
I heard that Lapetus was tortured for 3 successive months at all times without begging or trying to betray Othrys. When they realized they could obtain no information from Lapetus, they decided to get rid of my older brother. Fortunately, Iapetus was spared from Hestia's flames.
Unfortunately, The way that my children found could be seen as more cruel. Sometimes death and annihilation were better because existence especially an immortal one could be more than tortuous. My children decided to open a path through the Earth to the Pit under the Earth Mother before throwing Iapetus into Tartarus.
The disappearance of Iapetus from this plane of reality was enough to break the system that had been created by him and me.
Where before the force of Othrys had a chance of winning, The stripping of our troops' immortality turned the conflict into what seemed like a one-sided slaughter.
Our soldiers had always been immortal. They didn't fear the end because it was something that could never come to them as long as we, their lords Titans were present but with their newfound mortality, with the fall of one of us, with the spectre of Thanatos planning over them. Almost all the soldiers that remained fled from the conflict in existential terror. Those that didn't were slaughtered like animals by my children.
Themis did the unthinkable. Themis who I thought would never bend, betrayed us. Her betrayal marked the beginning of the end. If spitting on everything we fought for wasn't enough, she tricked Mnemosyne, Dione and Theia by delivering them to our enemies.
I would learn that Theia had fought back and for that, her body was so savagely brutalized that my sister had chosen to fade to escape from her agony.
Mnemosyne and Dione didn't fight after that and I didn't blame them but seeing what happened in the age of Olympus, maybe not fading at that time was the mistake.
All of my other siblings began to fall one by one. The weight on my shoulders increased each time as an indicator of the demise of one of my siblings.
With each minute, each day, each month, and each year that passed, the downfall I feared came closer and closer.
I didn't feel fear. He didn't yell at the Heavens or the Earth. I didn't complain about the unfairness of the world.
For the first since the departure of my siblings decades ago, I opened up my eyes. My gaze fell on my six children. "You have lost Father," Hestia said softly. Gone were the soft empty golden eyes replaced by cold ones. It was as if I was looking in a mirror. "Give up while you still can and we will be merciful."
I looked at the anger and hatred simmering in the eyes of my other children and how stiff they were. I focused back on Hestia and looked into her eyes and found something I wouldn't have expected to find. I could not stop the laugh that escaped from me. I laughed as if my daughter had said the funniest joke ever told. I laughed as if I would never again. "Is that love I see in your eyes, sweet daughter of mine?"
I finally stopped laughing "Let this be my last lesson to you as a father. I have many regrets, Hestia. I wished for a lot of things that could have never been because Ananke decided it. The only thing you can do is go on. No matter what sin you commit, no matter how much you regret, no matter how much you want to stop, never stop. You have to go on even if it's unbearable for those you love and that is the truth I've chosen."
I stood up from my throne and began walking toward my children. My form began to break and explode violently from the inside. I opened the door in the centre of my essence and drank from the waves of time. I drowned myself in them attracting his awareness. I retreated only at the moment I felt that drinking more would change me in an irredeemable and unspeakable way, warping me into something that I would never come back from. Strength and power that was easily a hundred times greater than what I had when facing my father filled me.
Like a butterfly shedding its cocoon, I erupted from my mortal disguise to reveal my true form. Instead of allowing my form to tower over the sky, I compressed it to stay at eye level with my children. Thunder shook the Heavens and the Earth bathing the world in an eerie purple. "I am Kronos, King of Otrhys, brother of many, and slayer of Uranus and the chains of Fate will not stop me! I am Kronos and today, I will engrave in your minds my traitorous children the oldest emotion, your inheritance, fear!" my voice boomed.
My children had taken fighting positions. I extended my left arm and summoned in my palm my adamantine scythe. I took a step and with it, Gaia itself bent.
scene*
The fight between us ended the way I knew would even if I didn't want to admit it, choosing to rage against it until the end rather than accept the impotence of all of my actions before Fate.
My fight against my children lasted for six days. Each of our strikes tore the landscape around us. Each of our attacks made the world scream in pain.
The sky was set ablaze crying tears of ashes, and gigantic plants bigger than mountains came to life life only to die moments later.
We tore at each other, with each strike filled with out maddening desire to end the other. Our battle raged across, within, and beyond the Earth, moving through it as if it were non-existent.
The Earth itself could not contain our fight. We made each other bleed in the cosmos and created world-swallowing storms.
One moment we were fighting in the center of Phanes trying to consume entirely the spark of divinity that animated each of us.
Then in the next the replica of Selene's body that had been created by Rhea would be destroyed when I ran Poseidon's face from the surface of it to its core before my son shattered the false moon to free himself.
The giant planetoid I had created would not escape the fate of its moon. A horizontal slash that meant to behead me from a blade sheathed in the lightning of Hera
would bisect it in two.
Its remnants would be used by Demeter and Hades as projectiles against me. We continued to clash with savagery consumed by our hatred and madness.
It was a tale as old as time, siblings against siblings, children against parents. Love could not resolve everything. Regrets would not change anything yet as my brain was carved out by Hestia's delicate fingers enveloped by fire before regenerating, as Hades opened a portal of darkness to redirect an attack into another galaxy that extinguished a star a quarter the size of Phanes in order to protect his siblings. As Poseidon, who looked so similar to her used his own body as a shield for his siblings before making my Ichor turn into lethal blades from inside my body, Demeter countered each of my attacks using her authority over nature. As Zeus still a child but so grown and strong for his age, threw a lightning bolt bigger than a mountain and that left space screaming towards me, I could not suppress inside a feeling I would have never thought he could feel towards his children, those who will ensure I would lose the most important things for me, I could not suppress the pride I felt.
My siblings, I could see their spectres in each of my children as if I was looking into a twisted reflection. Hades looked like Iapetus. Their faces seemed identical when they frowned.
Zeus looked like an unholy mix of me and Dione. He had the same features as her from the lower side of his face. From the higher side, he was my replica. The only difference was his blue eyes which he probably inherited from being the grandchild of two primordial sky gods. I could now see it now. How could he have missed it?!
Demeter took directly from my mother and my sister Mnemosyne. It was as if Gaia had chosen to create a lower Avatar and added Mnemosyne into the mix.
Poseidon looked so much like her that it was painful. Each time I looked at him, the Heart I thought he had lost a long time ago tugged painfully. He also looked like Tethys, though less than Rhea but the resemblance was there if you knew where to Search.
Hera looked like Theia and Phoebe. I could see in her nose that was a mix of the ones my older sisters had. Her other traits looked like the ones I had but were more refined.
Hestia, my greatest Love after Rhea and my siblings. Hestia, sweet Hestia, the one that would give me handmade gifts. Hestia that looked so much like me. Hestia that I had promised to protect. Hestia that I should have swallowed since the beginning.
'How did we get here' I thought before I had to erect a shield to protect myself from her flames. They burnt through it and attacked my right hand like a virus trying to consume all of my arms. I cut the member with my scythe and with another movement made my scythe swing at my daughter's face. She tried to dodge but was unable to do it completely making the adamant blade of my scythe rake on her left cheek and take an eye.
A punch in the gut by Hades sent me flying away from my oldest child who was slowly regenerating instead of instantly like at the beginning of the fight.
'I had been right,' I thought while cutting in half a mountain thrown at me by Demeter. Just behind the now-split mountain appeared Poseidon and Hades.
Poseidon tried to skewer me with his trident and Hades tried to do the exact thing with an ominous weapon made of darkness. I used my authority over time to glance at where the attacks would connect before dematerializing the body parts that would be touched.
I launched a corrosive wave of time at my children. 'A million years should be enough,' I thought before sending it to my children.
Their skin began to decay as if they were mortals and on the verge of death. I knew that it would slow my sons just for a millisecond but 'sometimes milliseconds were enough,' I thought before materializing a new arm and trying to bisect my two children in two with a horizontal strike towards the left before I had to retreat due to Hera attacking my previous position.
Hadn't my siblings and I fought in the past even though they were scared for a better future, for a better world?
My thoughts were halted by a punch that sent me flying back to Gaia's body. Hadn't we wished to create works where children would not have to shed their innocence?
Hestia was over my falling form. I could see how her fire-covered fist came closer and closer. My grip over my scythe tightened. I used my authority over time to slow it almost to a standstill yet she was still moving.
I directed my scythe towards the neck of my daughter. The tip of my weapon pierced her flesh and I saw how slowly blood began to erupt yet she continued.
A push was all that was needed yet why couldn't I!? My gaze fell on an inconspicuous thing, on a bracelet of pearl that adorned the hand holding my scythe.
"Father, this is for you," a 2-year-old Hestia told me giving me a bracelet of white pearls held by a thread of black hair. It was easy to see it was done by an amateur yet to me it looked like one of the most beautiful things in the universe.
"I was told by one of the Oceanids that it's something to be given to the most important person in your life. It's meant to show how you'll always be there with them, that wherever they go and whatever they do, you'll still love them. I know that it doesn't look the best-" I interrupted by hugging her.
I felt her lean into my embrace "I love you too Hestia. You deserved a better father but I want you to know you're my biggest Pride and it will never change."
"You promise?" she said.
"I promise Hestia. No matter what may happen in the future, I want you to know it'll never change. You're the only thing good I've brought into this world."
'Of course, I was destined to lose' I thought with a smile. I had already lost the moment he faced Hestia without my siblings. 'Sisters, brothers I'm sorry I failed all of you' I thought. I watched how it came closer and closer.
At that moment when I would lose everything, I could only feel serenity. 'Rhea' I thought. I knew she would hear me even if she would not answer 'Look at our daughter,' before Hestia's fist sent me burning, careening towards the ground like a fallen star.
I let the flames consume me. In the end, I was both a bad brother and a bad parent. I wished he could change it all.
That was my last conscious thought before the mind-breaking pain of the fire stopped any more thoughts.
My fall to the earth made it quake. I realized in his agony that I had fallen on the tallest mountain where his castle, the centre of Othrys once stood. I could only glimpse ruins, the shadow of something once glorious.
I felt them land at my side not a long time after. I felt my scythe being removed from the remnant of my left arm before I felt more burning pain as if I was being attacked from the inside out.
I felt each agonizing second when my body was cut again and again, each cut making my strength bleed away.
I knew right now that if he called for him, for one of the serpents, I would be able to escape the miserable Fate I knew my children had reserved me but I was tired and also how could he allow himself to flee, leave when I was the reason for the demise of my siblings when all the disasters that ended Othrys were the results of my sins?
I felt weightless, almost like a feather before beginning to fall. "Goodbye Father," were the last words I heard before my mind gave up and everything became black.
So, I joined the Darkside (). I don't think that words should be indefinitely locked behind a paywall so it's fine if you don't want or can't subscribe. I'll continue to post the way I used to. Right now, on the , I have three chapters in advance of Demiurge and Infernal Comedy. My Patrons will be able to vote directly on decisions that affect my stories, on which stories should be written and even ask for chapters of a certain number of words. Here is the link: https//Eileen715
Chapter 27
This is the last Kronos chapter for a while I hope and we're back to the modern age. I think that this is the song that fits the best this chapter
For thousands of years, Kronos slumbered into the stomach of the pit. Trying to think was in itself an exercise that Kronos could not do.
In the rare moments when he would wake up and manage to think, a question would always be at the front of his mind. 'Why didn't he in that agony choose to fade?'
After all, what had he left anchoring him to the world? Rhea has left, his siblings were probably suffering from untold torments or had faded away. The ones who had managed to escape punishment from his children were those who betrayed them, who chose personal self-preservation, and cowardice over all their siblings.
He wondered if Tethys was satisfied now. She had wanted Hestia to live on and the cost of that wish had been her siblings. He wondered if she even felt sadness when she learned the fate of her siblings.
Something welled up in him and flooded him. Disgust Kronos realized. Kronos's age may have finished, and Kronos may have everything he had loved destroyed but what pained him the most, what disgusted him to the point where by spite, he still clung to existence was betrayal.
He wanted to make all of them, all of those who contributed to the end of the Titans' age pay.
Kronos dreamt for more than a millennium of this. He dreamt of tearing Fate itself and its chains from the foundations of the world.
Ten thousand years after the end of his golden age, Kronos would be roused from his slumber. He would awake whole.
Kronos flexed his arm and saw it move. He tried the same kind of test with the rest of his body and found himself successful.
When he tried to access his divinity, Kronos felt a blocage as if he had entered into contact with an unbreachable wall.
"They couldn't let you do that," Kronos heard a familiar voice say behind him.
Both hatred and love flooded him from the inside. The owner of the voice stopped at his side "Hello Brother," Themis told him.
Kronos didn't answer. He instead turned his gaze toward what seemed to be an endless white horizon.
"The silent treatment?" she said. "That's fine. I can talk for the both of us."
"There is nothing to say between us Themis," Kronos finally spoke.
"What I did Kronos, you have to understand that I had done it for us," his sister said softly.
Anger and hatred won over love. "How could the betrayal of your siblings Themis be for their sake!" Kronos hissed. "How could it be for us when because of your actions, Theia chose to Fade!?"
Kronos felt her took a step back and looked as if she had been stabbed "I didn't think that it would end like this. I knew the moment your children escaped from your stomach that we would lose Kronos. I thought that in giving up, there would be more chances of us surviving than the contrary."
A laugh escaped Kronos' lips. "It seemed you miscalculated sister, that your cowardice at the end ensured only your survival. Where are the siblings for whom you did such a thing? Trapped in the pit or have probably faded."
A sigh escaped Kronos "What do you want Themis? What's the point of all of this? Are you there because you wanted me to alleviate the guilt you feel? If it's goal, you're sorely mistaken if you think I would do it."
"Amongst your children and grandchildren, a war happened and Zeus who held the highest throne like you once did was toppled and replaced by his daughter," Themis said.
"I would have thought that Hestia would have been king after me," Kronos told her.
"She was supposed to inherit it. This is what was expected but she disregarded the supreme throne, the authority of the King of the gods. Zeus may have not been the strongest of his siblings but he was the more popular so he became king," Themis spoke.
"The reason why you're not in the Pit anymore is because I was able to successfully plead for the release of the others and you," she told him.
"There seem to be caveats to the deal you made. I can not access my domains," Kronos said.
Kronos saw from the corners of his eyes A bitter smile bloomed on her face "They're not stupid Kronos. Would you have not tried to retaliate against them if you could?" she asked.
"I would have," Kronos admitted without shame. "Even then, it sounds too good to be true. By my presence, I'm a threat to the current regime."
Kronos noticed how Themis arms grabbed each other as if she was unconsciously trying to comfort herself. "I… had to do… certain things so that you could all be freed."
She sounded on the verge of crying and all the hatred he felt toward her vanished. She had betrayed them, her own siblings and by this actions led them to a path of suffering and loss yet even with all of that, Kronos loved her.
He felt like a canine that would always go back to their owner even if they abused them and Kronos felt disgust toward himself.
'Theia had faded because of her,' he reminded himself. 'The others suffered untold torments because of her'.
Kronos for the first time since the beginning of their conversion turned and focused completely on the form of his sister.
'She had changed' Kronos thought. Gone was the hard and proud Themis. What was left behind was a meek and fragile-looking deity. There were no crowns adorning her like in the past. Instead, what was now covering the back of her hair was a shawl.
Kronos followed his instincts instead of his head and hugged her. She broke down in his arms "I'm so sorry," she repeated endlessly.
They fell on their knees on the white sand Themis still in his arms. "I don't think I could even forgive you Themis. I Both love and hate you so much. What am I going to do with you sister".
Her breath became less ragged "I feel so dirty as if I was stained forever, Brother. Nothing that I've done that I thought would be right turned okay. I can peer through the eddies of Fate yet I still feel as if nothing that I did mattered. If I could change everything if I could go back in the past and erase this future, I would," she whispered.
"I know," Kronos answered. "I also thought this way. I wondered endlessly in the past when we began ruling Othrys in the past if my actions were the good ones to take. I was given many advice but one advice I was given was that it didn't matter what I could or could not have done, that it served nothing to think about things that could have been. The only thing I could and should try to control was my future."
"It was a good advice." "Who gave it to you," she asked.
"You did Themis," Kronos answered.
Her grip on him tightened. "They couldn't allow you your authority over your domains but what they could do was to give you something else."
She left his embrace and sat at his side. Kronos did seconds after the same thing. "What was the poisoned nectar," Kronos asked her.
"It is this island, the isle of the worthy that lost their lives, Elysium and you Kronos chosen to be its king," she told him.
"Is a king truly a king when his authority comes from someone else?" Kronos spoke. "I would never stop hating them."
"I would have wondered if you were Kronos if that wasn't the case," she told him.
"I want the others there with me free from all the torments I'm sure my children had entrusted on them," Kronos said to her.
"Consider it already done," she answered.
"You know that on the first occasion, I would try to lash out at them?" Kronos asked her.
"I know," she replied. "I learnt something from all those aeons and that was that nothing was eternal."
"One day the time will come Themis," Kronos told her. "The match of time is inexorable. All they built with be erased one day like Othrys had been with us. I just wish I could be the one to turn all of theirs to Ashes."
Themis opened her palm and in it materialized chains. "They are what is supposed to give you authority over this island."
Kronos looked at them and scoffed "How original," he said sarcastically.
Even then, he presented his arms to his sister "I trusted you once and had in the end only betrayal and disappointment".
She took a deep breath before opening her mouth "I swear before the Khaos, under the Heavens and with the Earth as witness that I will never betray you and any of our full-blooded siblings again."
Kronos looked into her eyes and with a sight nodded in affirmative to her.
With his approval, she arranged them over his arms. Like snakes, they enrolled around his arms before biting into his flesh.
Kronos felt them slither in his flesh before they stopped moving. Kronos had felt no pain and hadn't bled.
The other side of the chains that were hanging at his feet seemed to disappear into the ether.
"What now?" Kronos finally asked his sister.
"It depends on you," she answered. "Make them kill each other for all eternity if you want."
"What I want?!," Kronos chuckled. They were such fools. Kronos's authorities hadn't been the only reason why he had been seen as one of the strongest if not the strongest of the Uranides.
Kronos stood up and turned his gaze away from the endless white horizon "Let's prepare for the future sister."
demiurge*
"I knew you would come of all your siblings Hestia," Kronos spoke from his throne. He ignored the gazes of fear of his present sibling.
They may have been freed from the torments that hailed them but such things always had consequences whether they were physical or mental.
"Let's talk somewhere," Kronos told her before standing from his throne.
"Maybe I'm their father uncaring of the decision of my niece. Maybe I'm there to end all of you. What makes you think it's not the case?" Hestia asked.
Kronos walked from his throne to his daughter stopping in front of her. "Why you ask?"
"It's simple". He leaned on her shoulder to whisper in her ear "Because I know you daughter of mine."
She froze at his words. "Let's go on the balcony," he said before beginning to walk toward him. Kronos didn't need to use his authority over Elysium or look behind him to see that she was following him.
Their steps echoed on the white marble of Kronos's new castle. It could be said to be a reflection of Othrys. Kronos had built it this way to make sure he would not forget what he had lost. Servants darted away from their path as if they were Khaos itself.
They finally arrived at the balcony. 12 Thrones-like chairs had been arranged on a table made of the corpse of a once powerful dryad that had crossed Athena.
The goddess Kronos had heard has an ego even bigger than a primordial. The difference between her and her sire was the fact that she was seen as a better and wiser ruler.
Kronos sat on one of the chairs. Hestia sat at the opposite of him at the end of the table. Kronos turned his head and his view was welcomed with the images of what could only be called paradise, an image of Opulence and divine, something fit for the greatest heroes, that even the gods would be jealous of.
"You did well," his daughter admitted.
"I know," Kronos simply answered. He turned back his gaze on his daughter. She had both changed and didn't.
She had chosen to look the same way she did before Kronos had swallowed them. She was the image of young innocence, she was the image of something broken.
Her clothes were what gave the doubt of her truly being a child. Thick fabrics that seemed they were there to conceal from any gaze their owner. On her though, it gave the appearance of someone older, ancient, exhausted.
While Kronos was analyzing her, he could feel her do the same thing. Kronos wondered what she saw when she looked at him. Her father? Her oppressor? A nightmare that she could never truly get rid of?
"I don't even know why I came here." She began to glow gold, an indicative sign that she was taking her true form to leave.
"Such Father, such daughter. You're just like me Hestia," Kronos spoke while leaning his head on his fist in a bored expression.
The light around Hestia vanished instantaneously to reveal a glaring Hestia with eyes full of hatred. "Don't you dare say such a thing again," she spat.
"I just told you the truth daughter. The reason why I know you is because you're just like me," Kronos told her.
"I'm not like you Father." she spewed the word with such hatred that it seemed more like a curse than anything else. "I'm not someone that would because of cowardice choose to swallow their own children!"
"Then, why don't you have any children?" Kronos asked her.
She looked as if she had been slapped "What?"
"Then, why don't you have any children?" Kronos repeated. "I learnt from my dead subjects that Queen Hestia swore before Khaos itself eternal virginity, that she would bear no child into this world. I'm going to tell you why you did such a thing, Hestia. You did it because you knew what you would have done if any of the children you possibly had threatened the most important thing to you, your siblings."
"You're wrong," she denied.
Kronos continued to speak as if he hadn't heard her. "You know what the funny thing is. You said that you weren't a monster but you watched and did nothing when your own brother did worse than even what I did. He swallowed his child and the mother. What did you do daughter? Nothing! Doesn't that make a worse monster monster than me?"
"I did something when Zeus did this abomination," Hestia screamed. "I went to talk to him after. I knew it wasn't too late to correct his error but he didn't listen! So I waited for the good moment and toppled my own brother from his throne, I banished my blood. I did what had to be done no matter how much it hurt!"
"Your brother," Kronos interrupted her. "You didn't throw him in the pit or worse like you did with me and my siblings. Worse, you've let them walk way free and this, dear daughter is why you're like me. The only thing that matters to you is your siblings, like me, you made monstrous acts for them like what you did to my sister. I look at you daughter and I only see my reflection. Be honest, wouldn't you have done the same thing as me or something worse like your brother to ensure the well-being of your family, of your siblings?"
"I wouldn't have," she answered but unlike the other times, she didn't look at him in the eyes. She sat back on the chair and grabbed her head between her hands.
"I made many things, many errors, many atrocities I would do again if I had to Hestia," Kronos told her. Kronos felt that he had grabbed her attention "There's few things I could be proud of. You're the greatest thing, my biggest pride," Kronos admitted.
Kronos turned his gaze away from her. He acted as if he didn't hear the sound of her tears falling on the wood of the table. "Why are you telling me this? What kind of sick game are you playing?!" she yelled.
"I'm telling you the truth. I swear before Khaos, under the Heavens and with the Earth as witness." Cold seeped into Kronos's bones. Kronos could feel an endless hunger directed at him. He knew that if he had lied, his immortal soul, his essence would have been swallowed. "I'm tired of lying. That's all."
"That time, thousands of years ago, I thought that it must have been my imagination, a mirage that my mind must have itself created but it was real wasn't it? You Hesitated," Hestia said softly.
"I did when I shouldn't have. I blamed Themis and so many others for our fall when in reality I was the culprit. I chose to have all of you when I knew what you were prophesied to do. When I could have won, when I should have struck you, I didn't because I was a coward, a fool scared of doing what was necessary, because I wasn't strong enough to discard my greatest pride, you Hestia and that's why I lost."
"I just wish everything could have been different," she said. "Maybe if you hadn't cared, hadn't been scared by the prophecy and raised all of us, maybe instead of being toppled from your throne, you would have abdicated it to one of us. Othrys would have burned, disappearing to emerge into something greater, better without bloodshed."
"Or maybe it would have changed nothing and in the end, things would still be the same. You were a threat not only to me but also to my family. I had to act. You would have done the same thing, daughter."
"The fate issued the beginning of a prophecy," Hestia revealed. "They said that the Titan king would rise from the depth of Tartarus."
"So this is why you decided to bring me back from the pit," Kronos mused out loud. "I knew that there was something else but I didn't know what it was until now."
His gaze met the one of his daughter, two identical yet so different golden eyes. "Your new king wants to manipulate the prophecy?" Kronos asked even though he already knew the answer.
"Yes," Hestia replied. "The prophecies of the daughters of Ananke always happen so instead of trying to go against like you and her father tried, she decided to make it happen on her terms."
"She thinks she can outsmart the Moirai, such Hubris. Do you really think it would work Hestia?"
"I don't and this is one of the reasons why I came here." Her land lit into golden flames. She turned it to point it to Kronos. "I need you to be honest with me Father. Would you pose a threat to the future of my family?"
Kronos sighed "I won't lie to you, Hestia. Next time, I won't waver. I will crush and break everything you've built after me. I will destroy all of you, make you suffer. Only after this, I would find peace so the answer to your question daughter is Yes."
Her flames surged instantaneously after his yes. They burnt a path through the wood, the marble under them and the air. Kronos didn't move as the flames surrounded him and trapped him in his embrace. He could see through them the shaking form of his daughter as if she was restraining herself.
"To make sure that our loved ones never suffer, we have to make sacrifices no matter if they're hard or if they hurt, no matter if it means immolating ourselves. That's what the world requires of us, Hestia!" Kronos yelled over the flames.
Golden flames were falling on her cheeks from her eyes searing and blackening disgustingly the flesh. Kronos closed his eyes as he felt the fire converge on his form.
When he opened them back, it was to sight of flying ashes dancing like specks of snow in the air. Hestia was gone. "You're truly like me daughter," Kronos whispered ignoring the appearance of his siblings and the wetness he could feel on his face. "Pride had been the end of me but in the end, love will be what dooms us all".
scene*
Kronos sat alone on the beach. He had learnt from newcomers that the new regime had fallen and that Zeus was able to take back his crown. He learnt that Zeus was able to accomplish such things through the betrayal of those the new regime thought allies and the help of a foreign goddess that he allowed in their realm.
The foreign goddess that had sided with Zeus was one Kronos was familiar with. She had been the one to usurp parts of the authorities of her father and sister.
She had been the goddess known to be particularly cruel even amongst gods where cruelty was so easily given.
She had many names and titles. Queen of the Sky, whore of Babylon, the cruel one, goddess of beauty, goddess of war, harvest, lust Ishtar, Inanna, Astarte and Manat. Kronos had heard that it was said that she had asked two things to his youngest child that the fool had accepted.
She had asked for a throne amongst the ones the Olympians, his children and descendants erected and as her second demand, she had asked a sacrifice, not a mortal one but a divine one.
The goddess through foul sorceries and arcane secrets had been the first god in existence to do what had never been successfully done before, usurping an immortal, absorbing their essences until they had turned to nothing. Zeus had copied her with Metis and she had done the same abominable act again with Kronos's sister Dione.
Zeus had accepted and because of it, Kronos had lost another sister, because of Zeus, Kronos lost Dione. It couldn't be said that she faded because the Dione that Kronos had loved would never be able to come back.
From the threads of fate and from the fabric of reality, she was erased. All that she was, that she could ever be existed now in Ishtar.
He hadn't been able to tell the truth to his siblings. He didn't want them to feel the same anguish that he did.
The only thing they knew was that because the new regime that had lasted for more than a millennium had fallen, soon, their newly acquired freedom would be removed from them. They would be back to the torments tag they had thought they had forever escaped.
They didn't grow fearful, or scared. They knew that nothing they would do stripped of their authority would be able to change anything so instead of worrying about the inescapable, they had decided to throw an endless celebration. One that began at the moment of the fall of the new regime and that would only end with surely, his youngest would make them go back to their old torments.
He could hear the sound of the festivities away. Kronos had taken part for a while until he felt weary from them and decided to sneak away from it for a moment.
The false horizon and sky of Elysium made Kronos at ease, inducing in him what he could only call serenity.
He heard steps coming from behind him. Without looking back at using his authority over Elysium, Kronos knew who it was.
Kronos turned to face the newcomer. The newcomer was a man that Kronos had to admit was undeniably handsome. He was very tall, imposing, and very muscular, with shoulder-length black hair and a grey-and-black neatly trimmed beard. The blue electric eyes betrayed his identity.
"It's been a while Zeus," Kronos said. "Congratulations are in order. I heard that you gained back your throne."
His son stayed silent looking at him. "I wonder what comes next for you," Kronos spoke.
"An eternal reign," Zeus answered. "One where my siblings and I stay supreme."
Kronos couldn't contain the laughs that escaped him. He saw how the face of his son darkened in anger and how blue sparks came to life around the god but it was so funny that it hurt "Your siblings," Kronos said between his chuckles "hate you, Zeus. The world and they see you as a tyrant worse than even me. After all, I didn't swallow Rhea. They chose to banish you away from them. Now you came back, destroyed or will destroy everything they fought for and you think that they would still love you?!"
"What I do, I do it for them. They don't comprehend it, and they don't understand that it is the best for them but it's fine. It doesn't matter if they hate me now. I know that one day, they will see that everything I did was for them," Zeus said.
"You really hadn't changed," Kronos told his son. "You're still the child that came to Othrys, fearful, scared."
"I'm not the god of back then. I'm not weak anymore. I'm strong, strong enough to enforce my will on this world, strong enough so that I could win against Fate itself. I'm not like you Father," Zeus spat.
"I agree on the fact that we're not alike son." Kronos grabbed the authority he knew he would soon lose over Othrys and directed it at Zeus before twisting.
"I'm not someone hiding behind a facade, hiding behind an image. I am Kronos and I don't need to change myself because I'm scared. Everything I did, I did head-on. We're not the same child" Kronos spoke. Gone was the form of a man. In Kronos's sight, the only person that could be seen was a child not even 16 years old.
This was the last thought Kronos had before lightning fell on his form and he blacked out. He regained consciousness and was welcomed by searing agonizing pain that ran through every atom that made him.
"Look at you Father," he heard the voice of his son gloating "at my feet, weak, defenceless."
Even in his broken state, a painful laugh escaped from Kronos "You just proved that you were weak," Kronos whispered. "My words, they angered you because they were true. I may be a monster but my family loves me. When I meet Khaos, it will be knowing that I was always loved but you, Zeus, the love you crave from your siblings, they saw the true you and because of this will never give it to you. In the end and I promise that there will be an end no one will love you, no one of your siblings will cry for you."
Kronos felt the earth open, and crack around him "All of the sins you made, make and will make are worthless because, in the end, it doesn't matter what you do, you'll always be what you run away from." Kronos's form fell into the darkness yet he knew that his last words would reach his son "A scared lonely child.
Kronos felt his form break into many pieces as if nothing had changed, as if he hadn't been in the past put back whole. 'It was fine', Kronos thought as he fell into the pit. 'It may take days, months, decades, millenniums or more but I will be back and this time, the world will pay for all the actions committed against Kronos and his siblings.
scene*
It should have normally been Kronos's end. He should have gone back broken in the depths of Tartarus and never been able to do anything to escape from it.
The thing was that even Kronos hated Fate, Fate was now at his side. What made sure that Kronos would escape was something that he knew that not one of his children had even envisioned.
They had themselves given Kronos the key to his rise. When they had destroyed Othrys and Toppled Kronos and the other Uranides from their thrones, his children decided to not stop at this.
They created and built a being, a living doll almost identical to a human and had called this doll Pandora.
His children had wanted to completely destroy his legacy, the humans that supported him, that he had protected and their brethren. To do such a thing, they decided to commit one of the worst blasphemous acts that could be done.
They gave access to their realm to the Evils, fool-corrupting daemons, children of the night that only longed for despoiling and destroying everything they could.
They wanted to make his old subjects and their descendants suffer. Pandora didn't know that what she was given, that the box she had been entrusted with was a portal, an opening.
When she opened the box like she was meant to be, the evils surged and flooded the world with plague, hatred, suffering, despair and fear.
The Olympians, his children were untouched so they didn't care when the world burnt around them.
What the Olympians and no one would have expected was that Elpis, another child of the night had followed her siblings. She had just been unable to enter into the world of helike when Pandora had in fright and horror closed back the box.
When later, the girl opens it again to unleash Elpis, hope onto the world, she would not know of the world-changing consequence of her act.
Elpis had nested into the hearts of mortals and the lowest of immortals, in the hearts of those that had been afflicted by the sadism of her siblings.
She gave them something that had never truly been present in the world since its creation. She gave them Hope.
Hope wasn't an imagined concept. It was a tangible thing. It was what gave the strength to endure to those who received it. It was what allowed them to face the evils and not waver.
Hope was nothing else than a crystallized miracle. Hope was faith, faith in tomorrow, faith that things would get better, that the night no matter how long it was would surely end.
With Hope, those who received lived on. Their faith, their Hope allowed them to do what could have never been thought possible, challenge reality and win.
Hope more than a miracle was a weapon, one capable of changing the static, breaking the unbreakable, and reaching the unreachable.
His children would learn that with Hope, those they thought could never affect them began able to. With their hope and their faith, they could change the gods and deny them.
With Hope, they could change the intrinsic divinity of an immortal being when before it was something that could only be done by a higher being like a primordial or by someone having inherited the authority of one like Kronos had before Zeus and his children usurped it from him.
His children's story, one they called a triumph could be said to almost be known by all.
His children taught the world to hate him, to fear him, to despise him. What they hadn't known was that fear, hatred, anger, all those emotions were acts of worship.
With the hope, the faith nestled in their heart, that they had inherited from their forefathers, the mortal subject of his children gave him a gift. They gave him a name, a mantle. They gave him the mantle of evil.
If only they had known the enormity of their error. Evil was everywhere and in everything. Evil was there when a parent beat their child. Evil was there when siblings killed each other over paltry things like material things. Evil was there when humans killed each other because of ignorance and differences.
By giving Kronos the mantle of Evil, they strengthened him. Each of their evil actions served as fuel for the youngest Uranide.
With each century that passed, Kronos became stronger. With each atrocity committed, his torment became more bearable. Because of their actions, Kronos regained his consciousness and with it back, Kronos began to plan his return.
Kronos watched the world through the horrors it created. Kronos watched the world his children created and only felt disgust.
He would learn of the soon end of his trapping in Tartarus through a prophecy, a great prophecy.
Kronos heard from the mouth of the oracle how he would rise, how with the help of a hero, at the sixteenth birthday of one of his grandchildren, Olympus would either be saved or razed.
He watched how his son killed the children of his brother Hades to make sure that the prophecy would not happen.
Kronos would have thought that with all of this time, Zeus would have understood that prophecies especially coming from the Fates were unfortunately unavoidable.
The only Zeus had truly been able to do was strengthen the hatred his brother already had over him.
Kronos had waited thousands of years in the lit broken, suffering. What was another century? Kronos continued to wait and regain his strength through every evil act committed by those who dwelled on his mother's body.
Kronos's opportunity presented itself to him like a wrapped gift. Luke Castellan, so angry, so hateful, so scared.
Kronos knew of him through the domain mortals had bestowed upon him. Luke Castellan was just a traumatized child, one who longed for a missing parent, one who longed to live not only for himself but also for all other demigods instead of surviving.
To obtain Luke Castellan's loyalty Kronos had needed only one thing, to promise the demigod that the age he would create after vanquishing the Olympians would be one better for the demigods, a world where they could live without having to fear constantly for their lives because of monsters, because of gods or both.
A world where all demigods would be able to experience more than eighteen years of life. A world where children of literal gods would not be abandoned and have to sleep in an overcrowded caban ignored, not taken care of, unclaimed by their parents.
Kronos had promised it to the child. Kronos knew what it was to constantly fear. Kronos knew what it was to live in a cramped space with his family while your divine parent that should love you, and take care of you didn't acknowledge your existence unless they needed you.
The young demigod had been generously gifted at birth by his father, one of the grandsons of Kronos, the messenger of the gods, the thief god, Hermes.
Kronos learnt through Luke that because it was the winter solstice, the denizens of camp half-blood would be invited to Olympus itself.
Kronos had seen it as the perfect occasion. The Olympians, his children and grandchildren already hated each other. The elements needed to make everything explode were already present.
The only thing that was left was for a fire to be lit and that was the mission that Kronos gave to Luke. He gave him the task of stealing a symbol of power from of one the Olympians. He had known that in their stronghold, they wouldn't be vigilant, and wouldn't expect theft.
They were lucky in the fact that what Luke found had been the two symbols of power of two of his sons. The Master Bolt of Zeus and the Helmet of Darkness of Hades.
With the help of Kronos's instructions, Luke removed all the traps and curses supposed to stop any would-be thief from stealing the symbol of the power of a god.
Luke succeeded in leaving Olympus with the two Prizes when Ares who had been one of the gods that had been sent to the search of the Master bolt found him.
What had angered him was that Luke could have won if he had been cautious and serious. He hadn't. He had been so full of his theft that he didn't the god of war seriously and lost.
He would have also lost his life if Kronos hadn't intervened. Kronos had to sacrifice so much energy that he had assembled for aeons to twist the mind of the god of war.
Kronos punished the boy later with nightmares of his family, of other campers dying, of a blue-eyed daughter of Zeus endlessly falling alone surrounded by monsters. The boy needed to understand that it wasn't a game, that such an error occurring again could end all hope of Kronos destroying the Olympians, of him building the better world that the demigod wished so much for.
Months later, a child, another demigod came to camp half-blood. His name was a familiar one, Percy Jackson. He had once been able to glimpse how the stepfather of said demigod had physically hurt him.
Kronos at that time hadn't really paid attention but he knew that if he had done it, he would have immediately realized that the child came from Poseidon's loans with the appearance they both inherited from Rhea.
He hadn't needed his son to claim Percy Jackson to know his parentage, that he was probably the child of the prophecy whose sixteenth birthday could mark the end of Olympus.
He had asked without telling Luke the truth to test the child. At first, it seemed he would have been a disappointment until he wasn't and was claimed.
Kronos knew that because the Master bolt and The Helmet of Darkness had disappeared while Poseidon's trident hadn't, Zeus and Hades would put the blame on Poseidon, especially after the fact that he sired a half-blood child even though he swore with his brothers an oath.
Luke would learn that to prove his innocence, the child was asked to retrieve the Master bolt of Zeus, so that a war between the heavens and the seas wouldn't occur.
Such war was something that Kronos had seen as necessary to weaken his children. He had asked Luke to curse winged sandals he had received from his father and give them to the Jackson boy so that in the chance he was able to reach the underworld with the two symbols of power, he would be dragged with them to Tartarus where Kronos would be able to use them to strengthen himself and in the same time twist the mind of the young demigod.
The death or disposition of Poseidon's demigod whether it was during the quest on the surface world or the underworld would have maddened his sire. In any case, Kronos had also other backup plans.
Kronos hadn't needed them at all. What Kronos should have done since the beginning was just watching.
He saw how The demigod fought against a fury toe to toe and technically won. He knew that Zeus would have seen it and because of it, his paranoia and fear would explode.
He had been right. His foolish son had put a bounty on the head of the demigod for all whether they were from the mundane or divine world to see.
What he hadn't expected was how Poseidon had reacted in such a drastic way. Kronos hadn't needed to do anything else for the war between the heavens and the seas to rage. It was just a question of time before the underworld also became involved.
The dead that had been raised by his second son had been since their unleashing only killing. Each minute that passed was one where a mortal surely lost their lives.
Kronos's plan would have to change but it was fine. 'Uncertainty and surprise could be a good thing,' Kronos thought while for the first time since the fall of Othrys, Kronos's head was whole by his own will.
Next chapter we go back to the quest. The next chapter is through Annabeth's POV. I got three chapters in advance on my ( https//Eileen715). Two of infernal comedy and one of Demiuge, so feel free to check it up to support me and read in advance. Anyway, I hope you all like this chapter
Chapter 28
Our steps echoed against the marble of the hotel as we followed one of the monsters, one of the Telekhines that served as an attendant in the hotel we were in.
Even though I was following them, I didn't feel present in my own body, as if my body was moving by itself without my input.
I was feeling so many different things that in the end, it made me feel nothing.
I had wanted to be part of this quest for the glory I knew would have come if we succeeded. I knew that retrieving the master bolt would gain me my mother's attention.
I had hoped that she would see my accomplishment and would feel proud of me. I had hoped that by doing such a thing, even though she was an immortal and me mortal, things could be different, better.
I had hoped that by going into this quest, Luke and Thalia wherever her soul was would see that I wasn't a defenceless child anymore, that the kid that they had protected and loved was now strong enough to do the same with them in case a situation presented itself.
I had been unable to do anything, too weak to fight when I needed to and because of that, Thalia died alone.
Luke who I had always seen as the strongest, as strong as Thalia almost died in a quest, scarred forever by it. I had almost been alone again.
I had wished all my life for things to be different. Maybe if Zeus or even Hermes or even Athena had cared more, my family would still be complete.
With all my heart I hated the indifference of the gods but I had told myself that it was the way things were for all demigods, for all of us, that the only thing our lives amounted to was a search for glory that would without any doubt sign at a moment our death so that for a moment, we could feel the illusion of care, of love we wished our godly parents had towards us.
I had accepted the way it was normal for us demigods to die because of the whims of the god or against a monster in a painfully abominable way without our parents caring.
We walked toward a wall. The Telekhine that we were following touched it before the wall opened as if it were a flower made of gold and emerald.
I could see that on the other side, there was a room too big for it to possibly exist normally.
I wondered how such a miracle could possibly have been made. I had always wanted to build grandiose things, monuments that would indicate when I'm gone that I existed, that I Annabeth Chase and all my story deserved to be remembered.
This place showed me something. It had shown me that everything I thought I knew, all the knowledge I had been proud of was just the tip of a giant iceberg.
I realized that I knew almost nothing. It both infuriated me and made me joyous. I wondered how it was possible to construct such a place in a non-Euclidean way. I wished that I knew how it was possible to build with my own feeble hands something that could only be called divine, something that thwarted all the constructions made by clever mortals and demigods that still stood to this day like beacons in the mundane world.
I crossed with the others to the other side behind us. With a loud clang, the wall closed behind us.
"Why did you bring us here," Chrysaor the oldest son of Poseidon said. To be honest, I hated him and I knew that behind his smiles and his carefree attitude, he felt the same.
He was the son of Medusa, an ancient priestess of my mother who had been foolish enough to get infatuated with Poseidon, the greatest rival of my mother in her temple while she was her priestess.
In my mind, Medusa could be called lucky. She had been foolish enough to forget that, unlike Poseidon, she wasn't an Olympian and thus was susceptible to the wrath of my mother. If the gorgon had truly foolishly thought that Poseidon would have protected her, she truly deserved her punishment.
My mother could have even been said to be merciful. Gods could be particularly cruel. Prometheus and Tantalus were such examples.
I was brought back to reality by the words of the monster "I brought your graces and their companions here because of the task that His Majesty, your sire, Godking Poseidon had asked me to accomplish."
The Telekhine turned away from us and grabbed what looked like a remote from his suit. He pushed one of the buttons and the ground before them opened.
From the floor rose three giant platforms. On one of the platforms, I could see, held what seemed to be an electric guitar enclosed in a giant transparent box made of white diamonds.
On the second platform, in another giant box was what seemed to be a dark blob. A blob that I could see moving, twisting like a snake in its enclosure, as if it was alive as if it had sapience.
On the third platform stood something that seemed ordinary, that I would have not expected to see. Even though it seemed to be mundane, I could not deny that what was on the platform could probably have bought my father's house several times over.
"Is this a Saleen S7?!" Grover exclaimed.
The last item was in fact a green sports car. "I didn't know you were knowledgeable about sports cars Grover," Percy said with surprise in his voice.
With the way I have heard Grover rant in the past about sports cars and how like almost everything humans created, destroyed nature, it was normal to be surprised that Grover could on sight recognize and perfectly identify a sports car.
Grover realized the inquisitive and surprised looks directed at him and embarrassed put his hand on the back of his neck. "It's just that you know, it is important to know your enemy if you want to vanquish him."
The satyr turned towards the Telekhine "I hope you don't expect us to use such a nature-destroying machine?" Grover told him.
He looked at them in support. "Totally," Percy said. "Of course," I said. Chrysaor stayed silent but a look from Percy made him sigh "Like they said," the older son of Poseidon spoke.
The sea monster looked dejected "Yes, it is a Saleen S7 young satyr. Fret not because this one is a modified upgraded version." He began whispering "I wanted to begin with the others."
"Anyway," he uttered. "Let's begin with what attracted your attention first."
He began toward the car and we followed after him. Grover was sending him suspicious glares. With a push of another button of his remote, the diamond box opened in the front to allow us to come close to what was inside.
"In ancient times," the Telekhine began "When you wanted to make a sacrifice to a god, you just needed a herd animal but times changed and with them, the gods. Rare are the gods that care about such things as in the past. To obtain the attention of my lord, the great Poseidon, I sacrificed this car that I had modified for him."
"Then what about the sacrifices we make each night in camp half-blood? About the food, we burn each night in their honour? Are you saying that the gods dislike them? See them as poor ways to honour them?" I found myself asking.
He answered me with another question "Did any of those sacrifices bring their attention, their blessings?"
"What the gods want are things out of the ordinary. What they want are precious, rare things. They are beings capable of uprooting the world itself from its axis just with the strength of their will." A sneer bloomed on his face as if I had insulted him "Why would they care about burnt food?"
How could I have not seen it earlier? It meant that everything prayer we had been making at camps had all been worthless.
Was it the reason why gods only claimed demigods after they accomplished acts of glory in quests, when winning against a monster, or another demigod, or when doing something exceptional?
All this time, the answer had been before our eyes and none of us had found it. I was a daughter of Athena. I had inherited from her an intellect I knew was greater than most mortals yet I never felt so dumb before.
"When I bought this car made by mortal's hands," the Telekhine continued, "it was so full of deficiencies that I didn't need to be a Cyclops to see it. I changed almost everything. It just looks superficially like the car that had originally been bought."
"I changed the component that made the body of the car. I replaced the carbon Fibers with abyssal emeralds. The leather inside is made from the fur of a descendant of Atlanta herself. I replaced all the technology inside with better equipment commissioned from one of the greatest Cyclops smiths. I've hired Empusais to use their sorceries by inscribing invisible runes almost everywhere in this car that will allow it to ignore useless concepts like wind resistance or being dirtied or weighed! The engine was also totally changed. What gives energy to this vehicle is the fission of atoms of hydrogen!"
I felt my body go cold at those words "By the fission of Hydrogen atoms?!"
"Approximately How much energy is in this car?" I asked.
"Maybe twice or thrice as much as a tsar Bomba," he answered.
I took a step back and I could see in the corner of my eye that Grover had done the same "Are you crazy," I found myself shouting. "If something wrong happened with the car, millions of innocent lives could be lost!"
"Don't worry daughter of the War goddess, that won't happen. The only thing that could destabilize this core and make it would be the will of a powerful sea deity." His gaze fixed itself on Percy and Chrysaor "I made sure of this and in case it happened," he lifted his shoulders in a what-you-could-do stance "They're just mortals."
I wanted to scream at him, to gut him, to make him swallow back his words. Demigods were mortals. Our families were mortals. My dad was a mortal.
"That's enough!" the voice of Percy snapped like a whip "My mother is mortal. Don't forget this," Percy warned him.
It felt suffocating to breathe. It was as if I was at the bottom of the ocean and my internal organs were slowly being crushed in an agonising way.
Something had changed in him or maybe it just had been me that had been unable to see it all along.
When Percy had first come to the camp and slayed the Minotaur with his own horn, I had thought and hoped that he had been a child of the Big Three, a son of Zeus just like Thalia.
In the days after, all the skills and power I thought he would be able to demonstrate weren't there. It's as if what had happened with the Minotaur had just been a fluke of luck. When he had disarmed Luke, I had thought the same but there was still that little speck of doubt in the back of my head that was wondering what if.
When it was the time to capture the flag, I put him where I knew members of the Ares Cabin would come. I knew that they hated him. I wanted to finally be sure if he was the one who could allow me to obtain the glory that I've always searched for or if he was just an average demigod who had momentarily attracted Tyche's attention.
He has proven to me that he was what I was waiting for when he was able to beat numerous members of the Ares cabin.
Unfortunately, he wasn't Thalia's brother and I felt disappointed. Thalia was gone and would never be back. I could never show or tell how grateful I was for everything she did, I could never tell how I loved her and thank her for the family she's given me with Luke.
I had thought that maybe if Percy had been Thalia's brother I could protect him, paying him a part of the debt I would always feel I had towards Thalia.
There was also the fact that if the special demigod that was supposed to help me obtain the glory I longed for wasn't a child of Zeus, it would have meant that I would have to force myself to either be in the presence of a spawn of Hades, the god that had sent an endless amount of monsters after Thalia and us or Poseidon, the god that was the oldest most bitter rival of my mother.
I honestly found Percy stupid and still did but less than before. It was easier to get along with him than it would have been with a child of Hades.
When we had fought against the Fury, I had never felt so scared and powerless. Here was an immortal being that was said to directly descend from a Primordial deity either by the Sky Father himself or by the Night.
She was playing with us and nothing that we did, that I did seemed to be working. On the bus, I had been the first one knocked out by her. I had been a weight to the other questers.
Percy had continued to fight while I was unconscious. I remember half waking up, still dazed to Percy fighting against Alecto.
The two of them had moved so fast that the only thing I could see was a blur of colours clashing against each other and the impact they had on their surrounding.
They had moved through Asphalt as if it didn't exist. They made the Earth shake each time they clashed. They moved at speeds that shouldn't have been reachable for beings made of flesh. They were giants and the world around them was their playground.
Percy was supposed to be new to the divine world. It hadn't even been a month since he had first picked a sword to train with and yet he was able to do something that I wasn't sure Luke or even Thalia if she was still there could do.
It had been as if I was watching two forces of nature collide against each other. When they had briefly stopped, I had been dismayed to see that the Fury had looked worse than Percy, Percy, who was supposed to be a demigod was winning against an immortal.
I had wanted to flee. I was scared. Nothing prepares you to face death. No plans prepare yourself for an encounter with the divine.
Grover had apologized before hiding my still form in a camouflaged place to go help Percy. The clever thing to do would have been to go back to the camp. I didn't. Instead, I had followed and thrown my knife into one of the eyes of the Fury. I had been unable to do anything when Thalia faced the servants of Hades. If I had died I had thought, I would have preferred to die standing, proud like she had instead of dying like a coward.
The last thing I remember was that Percy had brought the sky itself down on the Kindly One. It made me feel inadequate.
What was the point of wisdom before doom itself? It was probably blasphemous towards my mother but this quest had shown me that wisdom only served when there was a chance of you winning but there were some things like death and its certainty, the sky and its vastness and the ocean with its abyss that it was impossible to win against with wisdom.
Wisdom could be power but power wasn't wisdom. After all, My mother wasn't considered as strong as an elder Olympian.
The telekhine fell on his knees "It won't happen again your grace. If you deem it suitable, take my life to remove the stain of my sin against you."
Percy looked weirded out as if he didn't how to respond "Don't kneel. Just don't say stuff like that again," Percy finally told him.
The Telekhine raised from his knees to stand back. "I can see through the words that you had said that you had wanted something from my Father," Chrysaor spoke. "What was so important for you to wish for the attention of our father? Things could have gone in a way you could have found tortuous."
"It was for my brother," the Telekhine answered. A smile bloomed on his monstrous face making him look like the unholy spawn of a shark and a dog "I knew the risks, my prince. When I had summoned his majesty, he had almost said the same words. I had told him that my life didn't matter to me. The only thing that mattered was my brother who had been cursed and was slowly dying because of it. It was a curse that fed on the life force of its victims and the magic in the air."
"If we had known earlier what kind of curse it was, I wouldn't have needed to call for lord Poseidon but we didn't and things got bad." His voice took a reminiscing tone "his majesty is known by many to be cruel and mercurial. That is what I expected. Instead of this, I found a kind, empathetic god. He healed my brother and broke the curse. He asked me just one thing."
"What did he ask you?" Grover spoke.
"He asked for me. He wanted me to be his. He asked for my loyalty and I gave it to him without hesitation. I don't regret my actions. I was assigned here by my lord as a supervisor when I had never done such a thing in the past. It was hard but my lord had chosen me to do this task, had faith in me so I learnt and I think I'm now doing pretty well. I'm also paid so well that I became a millionaire according to the mortal economy at the end of my first year."
His gaze focused on the two sons of Poseidon "I'm not the only one with such a story my princes. It's also the case for almost all those working in this modern temple. We don't serve his majesty because he's our god or sired some of us or some of our ancestors. We worship him because we think he's the only god that deserves it. In the coming war, we will live, kill, fight and die in his honour, so that he and his loved ones could be safe. The Sky Lord put a bounty on your head, my prince. It is only natural for war to happen."
Natural? How dare he? "Hundreds of millions could die!" I yelled.
"In our eyes," he answered. "Their lives aren't worth the life of the young prince."
"Anyway," he continued after clapping in his hands. "One week ago, my lord had sent me back this car with two other items. He had told me that they would be useful in the future in times of crisis. I know now of what his majesty was talking about."
Grover raised his hand as if he wanted to ask a question "Yes?" the Telekhine said.
"It's great and all," the satyr said nervously "but none of us know to drive a car. Annabeth and Percy are too young and I don't know if lord Chysaor has ever been in one before."
It was true that I didn't know how but I knew that if I wanted to, I could. I knew that it would just me less than an hour for me to understand how to drive a car better than any mortal. Learning in an accelerated way was one of the perks of being a child of Athena. I didn't say it though.
"That is a good question to ask young Satyr." The back of the ear of Grover reddened indicating that he was blushing. "There was a note when the car was sent back by His Majesty."
He began to rummage into his numerous pockets before he removed what seemed to be a folded sheet of paper with written words on it. The sea monster gave it to Grover. "Read it, young Satyr."
Grover unfolded the Paper "It is also a boat," the satyr read.
"I see," Chrysaor murmured. The immortal touched the car with his right hand. The car roared as if it was an animal. I instinctively took a step back. Its lights turned on as if a key had been inserted.
"Woah," Percy and Grover said in what seemed to be awe. 'Boys,' I mentally scoffed. 'They all share the same brain.'
"How did you do that?" Percy asked his older brother.
"Poseidon was seen as the god of those who travelled through the sea. It is not rare that some of his children inherit the skills and power to manipulate a boat." He turned towards Percy "It's your turn to try."
He removed his hand from the car and the vehicle became inert as if seconds ago, it hadn't been turned on, loud and flashy.
Percy looked into the eyes of his older brother. An unheard seemed to be exchanged by the two of them. Percy touched the car and the car lit up and became animated the same way it did with Chrysaor "I understand everything," Percy said with awe in his voice. "I know how to make it work, how to make it do exactly what I wish without having to control it manually."
As if to prove his words the doors of the car opened. I felt jealousy, an emotion that was becoming so familiar blur through my heart. 'Another power that he had inherited. Another proof that he's different," I thought bitterly.
The voice of the Telekhine cut through Percy's excitement "The car wasn't the only rare gift from his majesty."
He pushed another button on his remote. The box around the guitar sank into the ground "Woah," Grover said.
We had all removed our attention from the car to focus on the guitar. "This electric guitar was built by Cyclops using the wood voluntarily given by a dryad," the Telekhine spoke. "This guitar is an instrument allowing its wielder to control nature itself around them."
The telekhine removed the guitar from its pedestal. With it in his hands, he walked towards Grover. "It is clear for whom this gift was meant," he said before presenting it to Grover.
"Me?" Grover said surprised. He began to laugh nervously "There must be an error. Why would lord Poseidon explicitly prepare a gift for me? I'm also not the best even with a flute which is the instrument of predilection amongst Satyrs. I wouldn't know how to use it well. I would only anger and disappoint lord Poseidon."
"Young satyr, his Majesty rarely makes mistakes." Chrysaor scoffed at those words. The sea monster continued to speak as if he had not been interrupted "If he had wished for this guitar to be given to you, one of the companions of his son, then it must have been for a reason."
"Don't talk like this Grover," Percy said. "I believe in you. You've never let me down before. You distracted a fury even though you were scared for me. You've been my best friend. There are many things I don't know, that I'm probably wrong about but what I'm sure of is that you won't let me down."
Grover seemed as if he was on the verge of tears. I envied Percy for the trust that he could still display towards Grover. Because of Grover, Percy had lost his mother and me, Thalia. I could never hate Grover. I still saw him as one of my best friends at Camp Half-blood but I would never be able to trust him completely again.
Grover took a deep breath before taking the guitar in the hands of the Telekhine. His left fingers put themselves at the beginning of the strings and his right hand toward the head of it.
Grover's right hand descended on the strings and the electric guitar sang a song of violence and madness. Grover's hand began to move from chords to chords.
Around us, the ground and the walls began to crack. From those cracks, plants with thorns that looked as sharp as swords made of celestial bronze grew and grew until they towered over us. They moved and danced to the melody of the guitar. They surrounded us and began unfolding.
Their petals fell on the ground on us, around us like a rain of blood. I felt something crawl up St my feet. All the marble had been covered I realized by plants more precisely sunflowers.
And with one last fret of the string, the melody stopped. "This was so cool Grover," Percy yelled excitation painted on his face. "It's as if you were a rock star but cooler."
"It was well done," Chrysaor added.
"It was impressive," I admitted. The display I had seen was one I could have only expected from members of the Demeter cabin like Katie Gardner or the twin sons of the Director, Castor and Pollux.
The compliments made him begin to blush. "Thanks," he said. He looked Percy in the eyes "Percy, I want you to know that no matter what happens, you can count on me."
"I already knew that Grover," Percy answered with a smile. "But thank you for being there."
The telekhine walked toward The last box that he opened using his remote. I found myself walking towards the moving thing that had been in the box. I felt steps behind me but I ignored them "What is it?" I asked the monster.
"That thing was known as the Caelum," the Telekhine began. "It is something older than some gods. It was first created by the elder Cyclops who taught the secret of its creation to the children of Poseidon."
"It was known as the Caelum," he continued "because the intended goal of its creation was to make its wielder feel as vast and free as the sky. It was supposed to represent endless possibilities."
"You said supposed. Did it fail?" I found myself asking him.
"It is something that had been originally crafted by the elder cyclops, children of the Sky and the Earth. It wasn't possible that anything they made could be a failure. The tales said that the Caelum worked the way it was intended to but the only ones that could afford one of them were the gods and those they favored. The gods didn't need it to bend the world to their will so after a while, the novelty wore off and the caelum was discarded for something new."
He turned towards me "The Caelum is before all, a tool, one working in conjunction with the mind and the imagination of its wielder. One of the ancient Cyclops used to say that nothing was impossible with it."
He didn't need to ask for me to know what he wished for me to do, that Percy's father, Poseidon, the rival of my mother wished to give me a literal god-sent gift. Something that would allow me I know to breach the distance I knew existed between Percy and me, something that would allow me to grasp the greatness I longed for. It was more than anything my mother ever did for me.
"I'm not sure I want it," I spoke.
"But you'll be the best with it," Percy said. "With your brain, I'm sure that you'll be able to make miracles wise girl."
I turned to face all of them. "I'm not sure I want to continue."
Percy looked as if he had been stabbed and I felt a pang of guilt in my heart but I continued "Percy, your father declared war against all Olympus, against my mother. The smart thing, the thing that I should do would be to kill you or bring you captured to Olympus."
I saw how Chrysaor's fingers began to twitch as if the god was waiting with impatience to summon a weapon. Outside this place, millions were probably dying! Millions of lives lost because of one! Millions that never did anything wrong. "I observed you since the announcement of your Father. You had looked happy, not sad that mortals and probably other innocent beings are suffering," I told the youngest son of Poseidon.
"I know objectively that what my dad is doing is cruel Annabeth," the green-eyed boy spoke "But for once, I feel good as the world that had always been pushing me, accusing me, striking me suffer Annabeth. I am tired of being hurt again and again and again. Even if not right, I'm glad that for once there is someone on my side, that there is someone ready to fight the world and all of its horrors just for me."
"That's selfish and cruel," I told him.
"I know but for once, I want to stop being selfless," Percy said back to me.
I took a deep breath and turned back in the direction of the Caelum. "I'm envious of you, you know," I admitted to the boy.
"What? You envious of me?" he spoke sounding shocked.
"Of course. You've got parents who care. You lost your mother because she chose you over herself. The world is on the verge of ending because your father sees you as more important," I spoke.
"You just came to camp and everything was given to you since when we have to fight and beg for every inch we have," I spat.
"What makes you different?" I finally asked him the question that had been tormenting me. "What did you do so that your father would care when many of us died trying to have a sliver of their attention?"
"Annabeth, you shouldn't sa-" Grover tried to say but was cut by Percy. "It's okay Grover."
My eyes turned to my side to gaze at his eyes" I did not do anything special or know if I did something special what I did to deserve all of this," he said.
He put one of his hands over his heart "I don't think I deserve it honestly. It still kinda shocks me to think and see the fact that someone other than my mom cares so much for me that they are ready to go to war."
"I guess you were just lucky and we were not," I told him.
"I don't think that any of us should be doing something to deserve the love of one of our parents," he spoke.
"Maybe that could be the case in a fantasy world but that won't be something that will be happening in our world. Even with mortals, the love parents give their children is rarely unconditional. There are always expectations and when you don't respect or meet those expectations, they stop caring," I told him.
"You're talking about your father," he said in realization. Water erupted from nothing at his feet like a geyser and surrounded us before freezing.
I looked at the unnatural phenomenon. "You couldn't do that before," I spoke.
"Yeah. I'm trying to get a handle on my powers. I didn't want the others to hear something you wouldn't like them to know," he said rubbing his neck.
"This is surprisingly thoughtful coming from you," I said surprise colouring my voice.
"My father, I thought he loved me. Maybe he did but I knew that he didn't love me more than the normality in his life," I told him.
"I told him of the monsters I could see each time I looked out the windows, about how the spiders were targeting me specifically. He knew that my mother wasn't mortal but he didn't believe me. His wife complained and he listened to her, not me."
"Do you know how most demigods are weakened enough so that even the weakest monsters could get rid of us?" I asked the black-haired boy.
"No, I don't," he answered.
"What makes a demigod special, capable of surviving in this world more than the traits inherited by our parents are our natural reflexes that mortals misdiagnose as ADHD. Without them, we are vulnerable and Most monsters understand this. My father believed my stepmother and I was sent to a monster masquerading himself as a psychologist. I could see his true nature but no one else could and he could smell me."
"They drugged me, Percy," I told him "over-medicating me to the point I didn't even know if I was still alive or just a mind trapped in a living husk."
"That monster almost killed me. If it hadn't for Tyche, I wouldn't have survived. I wouldn't have escaped that day. I almost died because of my dad yet why do I still care about him? I hate him so much yet I want to believe, to think he's alright!" I could feel tears spilling from my eyes. I tried to rub the tears away "That's pathetic isn't it?" I spoke still trying to whisk my tears away.
"Welcome to the club. We have blue cookies," he smiled at me. "Don't worry Annabeth. You know what? Let's go see if your dad is alright!"
"But the quest!" I reminded him.
"It doesn't matter. No matter what happens, we are supposed to find the bolt and even then, I don't think that finding it would change the fact that Zeus wants me dead," he spoke.
"Thank you Percy" I whispered.
"I don't think that I would be alive today if it weren't for what you did by throwing a knife in the eye of Alecto," he spoke.
I tried to suppress a blush on my face but I knew that it was painfully obvious. I turned toward the glass hoping that he hadn't seen it.
"Can you break the glass?" I asked him.
Percy touched it with one of his hands at my side and I observed how spider cracks began to form on the glass before it broke. I looked at the broken fragments. It seemed that he broke it by freezing it and making it brittle.
I would think about how he broke the rules of thermodynamics later. I focused on the moving form of the Caelum.
If I did this, I knew that I would not be able to go back. I took a deep breath and touched the Caelum with my right hand.
It surged like a snake enrolling itself like a black mamba around my arm and biting in my flesh.
I solderied on through the pain biting my tongue to not scream as I felt it travel in my veins, connecting itself to me on a level more than just symbiotic.
The pain faded away. I could feel something in my brain as if I had gained a new member and the information on how to use had been downloaded in it.
I willed it and the Caelum surged from my skin like a wave of silver to break the ice barrier made by Percy. I looked at the amazement in the eyes of Percy and Grover, at the lifted eyebrow of Chrysaor. Thalia, I don't know if wherever your soul is, you would be proud of me, proud of my actions. I just wish you knew that I am not scared anymore for the first time since you are gone.
It's been a while since I posted a chapter of this story. Thought it would be a good idea to do so. Sorry for the numerous mistakes of the sorry, my beta helped and if everything's fine, before Monday, the entire story should be more readable. I checked canon and found two interesting things. Annabeth and Percy were probably between 6 foot and 5.11 inches at fifteen( what do they feed them). The second thing is that demigods eat Ambrosia or drink Nectar to heal and too much can be bad but this depiction is mythologically inaccurate. According to the original myths, the simple fact of eating Ambrosia or drinking Nectar is enough to turn someone immortal. Rick Riordan either forgot or didn't care. There is also a lot of other stuff that I would try to explore in the future of my fic. Anyway, I have two chapters of Demiurge and four chapters of Infernal Comedy on my ( https//Eileen715). Don't hesitate to visit if you want to read more
Chapter 29
"Ready?" The voice of Chrysaor spoke.
"Yeah," Percy replied as he put the seatbelt on. He heard Grover and Annabeth answer and do the same thing. He grabbed the collar that had been given to him by his father.
It was time for them to leave the hotel. It was time for them to go back against a world that wanted them dead, that wanted him dead.
Percy closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm his nerves. He could feel the attention, the presence of his father almost hovering over his shoulder.
The world was going to hell because his father had chosen to love Percy, to believe in him. He will not fail.
All around the car, guards stood. It seemed as if every denizen of the hotel had come to wish them good luck.
The manager telekhine who had shown and given them the gifts of his father was just before the doors, talking into what seemed to be an earpiece.
He sent a silent nod to the guards who nodded back and began to move. All around them, the denizens of the hotel began to move like one mind in different bodies.
"What are they doing?" Percy wondered out loud.
Tremors shook the parking. It felt as if they were in the epicentre of an Earthquake. Percy realized with shock and wonder that it wasn't an earthquake.
The hotel itself was moving. The manager finally turned toward them. "My Princes. Our only orders were to make sure you all leave safely. We choose to disobey. His majesty had been more than kind, more than deserving of our love, of our worship!"
They began to glow, a deep blue colour as deep as the Ocean. From the glow, Greek armour began to form.
All their fists crushed against the newly created armour creating a loud sound akin to lightning splitting the sky.
"Open the doors!" shouted one of the sea denizens.
The doors began to open. Rays of light illuminated the parking making it truly look like a scene from another world.
"My Princes," the manager Telekhine spoke softly. "The moment you leave this hotel, servants of the sky lord and mercenaries will be attacking. We'll try to create for you a safe path."
"This is madness," Annabeth hissed at Percy's side. "They want to stop by themselves what would most likely be gods or greater monsters."
"They won't stop them, They'll fail," Chrysaor spoke. His voice held some kind of softness, one Percy had only been able to see when they talked on the roof of the hotel.
Percy realized with horror that most of the people saluting right now would probably die in the next hours if not the next minutes. All of this was Zeus' fault. If only the god hadn't been a paranoid tyrant, things wouldn't have gone this way!
The car roared suddenly to life. Percy turned toward Chrisoar, the only one who could have turned it on.
He wanted to be angry, to yell at Chrisaor but he pushed this feeling deep down. It reminded him too much of Zeus. Chrysaor wasn't at fault.
The doors finally opened leaving the city of Virginia Beach bare for them to see. "Your graces!" the voice of the manager boomed. "We do this of our own wills. It is and has been an honour for us!"
Percy saw how the dark sky seemed to even get darker and angrier. Percy could see dark forms through the clouds, forms with wings, swords and spears.
"Forfathers! Your majesty Poseidon! Bear witness!" the telekhine shouted before jumping toward the sky. The other denizens rushed after him.
At the same moment, Percy watched how armoured people also fell from the sky. The two armies clashed in the sky and the world became a battlefield.
"It is time," Chrysaor told him softly. "Those people, they chose to give up their lives for us. The only thing we can do, the only thing you can do is to make sure their sacrifices aren't wasted."
"Yeah, you're right," the younger son of Poseidon simply said. Percy watched as The manager skewered one of the sky people with his spear, using the body of the now-dead opponent as a shield to protect himself from the lightning of another enemy.
"Let's go," he said to Chrisaor.
As if it was the signal his older brother was waiting for, the car moved. In an instant, they left the hotel, the car already cruising through the streets. The world around him seemed a blur. The only reason why he didn't feel scared was that he could feel the car, how it worked, the different mechanisms that made it. It almost felt alive to Percy's senses. Percy was sure of one thing. Nothing wrong would happen to him as long as he was in this car.
"We're going to die!" shouted grover as the car ran over hordes and hordes of Zombies and what seemed to be monsters.
Percy could have sworn that he saw harpies and other kinds of monsters he didn't know the name of trying to attack the car.
Percy turned to look at Grover in one of the backseats "We're not going to! I promise," Percy told Grover. "We'll reach and come out of the Underworld all alive!"
Percy felt it before it came. The all-encompassing smell of Ozone, his hair standing on their end.
Percy watched as a gigantic bolt of lightning bigger than their car began to fall on them. Chrysaor's two hands went to grip the wheel. Percy watched his body tense.
"Prepare yourselves!" he yelled. A grin that Percy could only call mad was splitting his face "We're going to defy the edicts of the Heaven!"
Percy deepened his connection with the car. He left the control to Chrysaor. Instead, he followed his instincts. The same sinking sensation he had felt when he was fighting against Miss Dodds came back. Percy wished only for one thing, to strengthen the sports car.
A burst of hydrogen sent their car flying toward the falling lightning bolt. Percy braced himself. The lightning bolt hit them.
The car groaned painfully but continued to rise in the sky in defiance. "This is crazy!" Grover shouted.
"This is just the beginning!" Chrysaor yelled back.
"On the hood!" Annabeth warned. Indeed, on the hood of the car, an armoured winged figure had their golden spear already plunged toward Percy's head.
The spear met the glass and the one that broke was the spear. It broke between the head and the pole.
Percy watched as it began to shine as if it was a bomb being set off. Chrysaor reacted fast, his hands spinning the steering wheel toward the right.
The armoured figure lost its balance as the car rotated. The window on Percy's side opened.
Acknowledging the silent message, Riptide moved flying through the air like a golden halo of destruction to lodge itself In the neck of the armoured figure.
Another winged figure tried to use the window as an opening. "As if!" Percy heard Annabeth shout.
Silver spikes pooled all around him rushing like a wave toward their opponents. The spikes embedded themselves in the body of the enemy.
Percy watched how the eyes of the sky person widened. Under them, the spear finally exploded.
The sky shone gold. The car was proposed toward the top of the cloud by the force of the explosion.
They emerged from the dark clouds to the sight of a war in the heavens. "We have to get down Chrysaor!" Annabeth screamed at Chrydaor. "We are In their territory!"
"That's where you're wrong daughter of the war goddess! This car is nothing but a boat in my hands! Those dark clouds are nothing but a tempestuous Ocean! I am Chrysaor the Golden and I have never been beaten by the whims of the Ocean!"
The car finished its ascension and began to fall toward the clouds. Clouds rose under them to form a ramp "Little brother. Let me show you how it is done!"
The wheels of the cars slid on the clouds as if it was concrete. It shouldn't have been possible but this was truly happening.
Mad Laughter escaped from the lips of Annabeth. "We're driving on the clouds themselves!"
They were In a car driving on the clouds. They were In a car driving on the clouds. "This is an age of a hero and gods! This is an age of wonders! This is just the beginning!"
Percy could see Coming closer and closer to the armies of winged people with lightning-shaped weapons in their hands.
"Chrysaor were surrounded!" grover shouted. "We are trapped!"
"You're wrong young satyr! They are the ones trapped!" Percy felt the connection he had with the car become completely his. "Percy, I give you the control!"
"You're crazy. We're all going to die! I had never driven a car before!"
Chrysaor had already left his seat. "This is nothing but a boat in a different form! You're a son of Poseidon! I trust you with our lives!"
"Wait!" Percy yelled but it was too late. The immortal had faded into a golden mist that travelled that went up and travelled through the crannies of the car.
Percy moved into the driving seat. He was scared of screwimg things up. "You won't," the voice of his father whispered in his ear. "I'll always be at your side, my son."
Percy took a deep breath to calm his nerves "Percy tell me you know what you're doing," Grover begged.
The hands of Percy moved to grip the steering wheel. Instincts, Percy never knew he had, took control of his body.
"Where is Chrysaor?" Annabeth asked. At the same moment, through his connection with the car, Percy felt a form standing on the roof.
"On the roof, he's on the roof," Percy answered softly.
"You're crazy. All of you children of the big three are crazy!" Annabeth said. It felt like a fever dream even for him. If someone had told him months ago he would be driving a car on clouds, he would have asked what kind of acid they were.
Percy's right hand moves to the gearshift. "Brace yourselves!" Percy warned the two other campers.
"If we all die seaweed brain, I'm haunting you for all eternity!" the gear shift was moved to the maximum speed.
"Burst," Percy commanded the car before with a loud shockwave, the car rushed to the ears of the armoured people in front of them.
The car went through bodies and turned to paste. Ichor and blood splashed against the car as Percy rammed through hundreds.
He could see with his vision how some of the winged people had brought with them giants, giants that were as tall as buildings and even more clad in armour than the angels with an average height.
One of the giants moved, faster than Percy thought a being of his size should be able to. The punch sent shockwaves and violent wings toward them.
The armoured angels' s look-alikes who had been lucky enough to survive the car were sliced by the furious winds unleashed on them.
Dozens died before the fist of the giant even came closer. Percy should feel scared but he didn't.
Golden light surrounded them creating a new dawn "Listen servants of the sky! The sky may be infinite but even infinity will be swallowed by the abyss in the end!"
Percy heard the click of a sword being unsheathed. An omnidirectional wave of gold flew from the car.
"Brother! Full speed! Time to leave this accursed sky!" Chrysaor shouted.
"Understood!" Percy answered. His leg moved crushing against the accelerator with all of his strength.
Time went to a standstill for Percy. At this moment when everything stopped, the only things that moved were Percy and the car. The car moved. With one hand on the steering wheel, Percy made a 180-degree turn to dodge the frozen opponents.
Percy saw an end to the clouds, a space that would allow them to leave the domain of Zeus. Percy watched from the corners of his eyes as behind them, everything was sliced as if it was a comic and with his sword, Chrysaor had cut the world itself.
Percy felt the static rise again which meant one thing. "Zeus, he's going to send another lightning bolt!"
"Chysaor, you have to get back in the car," Percy shouted to his older brother.
"I had already told you, brother! This is nothing but a tempestuous ocean and I, Chrysaor never backed down against one!"
Percy watched as the sky around them took life. He could feel in the clouds fiery hatred, boundless hatred, feelings that were directed at them, that were directed at him.
Chrysaor moved sliding from the roof to the hood of the car "This's just the beginning line brother! Today isn't the day when we lose!" Chrysaor yelled his voice booming through the sky in defiance of Zeus.
"I thought he wasn't like you. I thought he had more sense but no, he's exactly like you!" Annabeth said.
"Do you regret it?" Percy asked her as the aether opened before them.
"No, Percy," he heard her say softly "I don't."
"And you grover?" he asked the Sathr even though he already knew the answer.
"I'm your friend. I'll follow you till the end whether it is now or in a century," The satyr answered.
Percy's grip on the steering wheel hardened. Percy pushed the car at its maximum "Chrysaor, let's do this!"
A lightning bolt rushed toward them from the aether. Percy watched the grip of Chrysaor tighten on his sword and his muscles tense in preparation.
At the last moment before the collision, a cloud rose under them angling Chrysaor perfectly. Like a bat, The immortal son of Poseidon swung his golden sword at the lightning bolt and the world lost sense.
A vacuum was created around the lightning bolt and the car. A destructive shockwave of gold and blue surged all around annihilating the world around them into nothing. Percy saw cracks begin to form as if reality itself was breaking.
At that moment, the world bore witness to the forgotten one, to the son of the Gorgons and Poseidon, To Chrysaor, the golden! "Father! Mother! Aunts! Brothers of mine! Callirhoe, BEAR WITNESS!"
The sward erupted like a geyser losing its shape, becoming something more than a simple sword before cleaving through the lightning of the King of the gods.
At that moment, looking at the form of his brother, Percy Jackson felt pride.
Family shouted Dom Toretto, Chrysaor! This is a mythological world where gods exist, where supernatural beings can manipulate worldly elements and concepts yet I had never read before a fast and furious scene in a Percy Jackson fanfic. That's a shame but that's fine! With this chapter, I unlocked 120% of my potential! I got one chapter of Demiurge and Five chapters of Infernal Comedy in advance on p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / Eileen715. Don't hesitate to visit if you want to read more or simply support me.
Chapter 30
"The Hephaestus cabin would soon finish the command of the dozens of spears. The Hermes cabin already finished placing urns of Greek fire all around the camp near bodies of water," Ethan Nakamura said to Chiron.
"Good, what about the tasks given to the Ares and Athena cabins?" Chiron asked the young demigod.
"They are still working on it but Clarisse thinks it should be ready before Dusk."
"Good. That's good." Chiron's gaze focused on the demigod more precisely the little tics and almost perfectly hidden behaviours he was showing.
His skin was placid and Chiron could see the beginning of dark circles forming under his eyes. He could see how his eyes were moving in every direction as if searching for a threat. Ethan had grabbed one of his arms with another without realizing it.
"You're doing a good job Ethan, you're all doing good," Chiron spoke softly. "I'm proud of all of you."
Chiron watched how the eyes of the demigod widened. Chiron watched the curtain unravel before Ethan schooled his facial expression.
"Thank you Chiron, I'll go tell and help the others." Chiron watched as the demigod left. This had been one of the first times Chiron had said such a thing out loud. He had always thought it but had stopped expressing it outside the confines of his mind for a long time. Chiron wished he could do more but he wasn't allowed to.
He wasn't supposed to get too close, too attached but with the current situation, he felt that the demigods under his care needed this feeble reassurance that they mattered, that In the end even in the darkest times, they were not alone.
Chiron was called many things all along his long existence. Centaur, Kronide, bastard, teacher, father. He was the one who taught heroes how to survive the cruel world they were born in.
He was the one who saw how pathetic, how demeaning their lives had been and decided to change it.
Chiron did because he could understand them. Most of them were the results of lust-induced trysts. Most of them were unwanted, vulnerable, and alone.
Chiron was the unwanted son of the most cruel deity who existed. He was the son of a mother who chose to fade over raising children she only saw as a source of shame.
He had wanted to change things. He had done his best in the beginning. Everything seemed so hopeful, seemed so better until he failed.
Chiron was a reminder to his half-siblings, the Olympians of their worst moments. He was almost the physical replica of their father. If they hadn't been against hurting each other, Chiron knew he would have long been suffering a torment worse than Prometheus.
He was their brother but he wasn't at the same time. He wasn't a child of Rhea. He hadn't been born in the Titanomachy still nursed in the stomach of his mother. He hadn't been there for them the moment they needed help and because of this, he would never truly be a part of their family.
A little part of him even to this day yearned for it, for recognition, for acceptance but Chiron was old and the wisdom given to him by his age was that it would never truly happen. He would always be at best an outsider and at worst a servant.
Even then, Chiron had tried with all his might to improve the lives of demigods. He had tried even though it had been hard, even though it had directed the ire of immortals and mortals toward him.
It had been hard but it had been easier than it was now. He had been an immortal and whether people recognized him or not, a child of the Titan king was not one easily denied.
Power was the only universal currency and Chiron had it in spades. He hadn't been as strong as his siblings but he had been strong enough to be able to stand proudly amongst the Olympians.
Time like it was in its nature to do so passed and brought changes. Chiron gained, lost, learned and loved. He gained friends, students and descendants.
If only they knew how each of them had made him proud. If only he had been able to say more to Achilles, his grandson how proud he had been? If only he had been able to say to Heracles that the mad things surrounding him weren't his fault.
Chiron had not been able to do this. He lost them and lost one of the most important things he could have lost, what made Chiron Chiron.
Pain, unimaginable pain had coursed through his body. That day the poison of the Hydra cursed him with his touch, he understood that immortality meant nothing before suffering, before misery and cruelty. Chiron chose to die to escape from his torment and in doing so, He lost his divinity, his Immortality.
He wished that he had stayed in the sky as a constellation. He wished he wasn't removed from the heavens at the will of his siblings and their children.
Chiron had given up his divinity and that made him weak. They all knew this, this made them gleeful. Chiron hadn't chosen to come back. He was forced to.
He was forced to come back lesser, humiliated, an immortal without its immortality, a god without any divine power, a god stripped of his essence, of what truly made him.
He wasn't strong anymore to protect. He wasn't strong anymore to change things. The only thing, the only true choice he had been left with was to obey.
Obey like a slave, obey like a mortal. Chiron had loved teaching but his changes, him losing his divinity made him loathe it with all his heart.
He loved teaching because he thought that he was making things better. He loved teaching because he liked to give his students the necessary tools, the necessary knowledge not only to survive but to thrive!
The Olympians didn't want this. They didn't want their children to be independent from their will, from their schemes. The Olympians wanted an army, they wanted slaves and Chiron was supposed to be the one sending those children to the slaughterhouse.
They all were so hopeful, trusting in parents who didn't care, who would never truly care about them, ready to discard their lives at any moment just to feel a speck of pride when they were children.
Children even with divine blood had no place on a battlefield. Children even with divine blood shouldn't have to fight monsters as old if not older than the current civilization.
Unprepared Children who were purposefully trained by him, by Chiron to be ignorant, to be weak and vulnerable.
Chiron was supposed to make sure they didn't realize the discrepancies between what they were taught and what truly was.
Chiron would never teach them how the Ambrosia they used to heal themselves could be used for so much more. The gods made sure he erased from every book at camp the possibility of mortals ascending because of ambrosia, the literal food of the gods.
They would never truly be able to learn how to properly make a binding oath! An oath on the Styx only affected mortals or the gods who dwelled in the Underworld.
They would never be able to learn how to use their powers to do things that could only be said to come straight from the myths themselves.
Their parents could uproot mountains, make all plant life die, provoke wars just by thinking about it and yet they didn't see how strange it was that they were unable to do at least one per cent of those feats.
Chiron had been forbidden to teach them the secrets of the world, the real laws of this cruel world that only wanted to destroy them. He wasn't even allowed to show them how to tap into, to realize their own potential.
The current generation of demigods was both the weakest and the strongest. Even after losing his divinity, Chiron could still glimpse into their souls, into what they could be.
Chiron, trainer of heroes?! Ah! Such a joke. Chiron keeper of the status quo would be more accurate.
He knew that hatred brewed in the hearts of some demigods. He could feel change, great change coming. Even with the world supposedly ending with the lord of the sea raising the dead, Chiron felt as if this was just the beginning of the storm.
He just hoped in the end, what would come crawling out of the ashes would be something better than this current world.
He hoped that when he would be struck by destined death, it would be before the coming of better days.
He was dead he realized, dead for a long time. He was just the walking corpse of something that should have been left alone in the dark void of the cosmos.
"Lost in your thoughts?" the familiar voice of Dionysus uttered at his side. The god had appeared from the ether occupying where once had been nothing.
"We're at war and war always makes me think more than I would like to," he answered the young Olympian.
His gaze stayed fixed on the entirety of the camp, of children training with weapons, of innocence shed before time.
"You didn't change Chiron. You always hated all of this," Dionysus chuckled at his side.
Chiron wouldn't say he trusted Dionysus but he felt at ease around the Olympian. Dionysus still remembered him as a kronide, as a divine centaur. Dionysus still remembered him as his teacher. There was also the fact that a long time ago, they had been more than friends, closer than brothers.
"I should have killed the boy the moment I saw him. He's only trouble," the god spoke.
"It wouldn't have changed anything," Chiron answered softly. "The lord of the Oceans would have made sure the whole world felt his grief but more than that, you and everything you care about would have been his target."
"Maybe it would have been the case but it wouldn't be as bad as it is now. I knew he cared about his children but I never would have thought he would go so far Chiron".
"No one has expected this to happen. He's called unpredictable and wild for a reason." The only similar thing Chiron could remember was Persephone and Demeter.
Nature, reality screaming as parental love made the Earth and its denizens bleed and die painfully. Gods were naturally destructive and their love when they did love was only a reflection of this, too wild, too strong, too cruel.
Even then, maybe if all gods had cared like this, maybe if gods loved all their children the same way Demeter and Poseidon cared about theirs, maybe the world would be a better place, maybe Chiron wouldn't feel like such a monster.
"Do you fear what's coming?" he asked Dionysus.
"Gods don't fear old friend," the Olympian said softly.
Chiron reformulated the question "So then, how do Dionysus feel?"
"… Scared, Scared Chiron. I'm not scared of what could happen to me. I fear what could happen to my children. It's in the nature of mortals to eventually die but even then, I had hoped to give them a long peaceful life."
"What are you going to do?"
"Nothing Chiron, I can do nothing."
"You can Dionysus. We're all slaves but even slaves can choose between life or death."
"That's cruel coming from you Old friend. You weren't like this before."
"Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't and became like this. Dead children change your perspective on things."
He turned his gaze toward the dark clouds covering the sky. He could almost taste the water in the humid air "Do what your heart believes in before it's too late."
A chuckle escaped from Dionysus "What happens when it's too late Teacher of wisdom?"
"You become me, Dionysus. You become a husk. Your children will die but you can make sure they won't die on a battlefield."
"Their absence will be noticed. There would be consequences."
"There are always consequences to love Dionysus. This is why it is hard to create yet so rewarding."
Chiron walked to one of the walls where hanging was a long silver spear. He removed it from the wall and began to leave the great house.
"Where are you going?" Dionysus asked behind him.
"Fighting," he simply answered. "After all what kind of teacher doesn't help his students?"
Chiron ran his mortal form limited but still superior to most things. Faster than an arrow, he reappeared at the border of the camp a spear lodged into the head of a walking corpse.
With two of his horse legs, he crushed into paste other attacking corpses. Chiron moved as one tried to skewer him with his sword before using his spear like a bat, Chiron caved his skull in. Chiron loved fighting. At least, like this, the only one who could be hurt would be him. Chiron loved fighting. It allowed him to forget the thousands of children he had sent to the grave because he had been a coward.
When you think about it, Chiron is just a keeper of the status quo. Percy loves him because he was his cool Latin teacher but except that, what did he do in canon other than training and sending children to die? Even without his divinity, that guy has been there longer than ten thousand years. He's older than Mycenaean Greece. He should have taught at least in canon incredible secrets or stuff to his students. Also, I found it weird how he was so calm with the fact that he would soon die due to Thalia's tree being poisoned. Maybe it was the case because Chiron wanted to die and was finally able to. Anyway, hope you all like it. I have other chapters from my stories on my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / Eileen715( 7 chapters of infernal comedy). Don't hesitate to visit
Chapter 31
We had stopped before a McDonald's that was surprisingly still open. Well, not really before it, more on a rooftop on which the streets, people and The McDonald could be seen. It seemed it didn't matter the world was ending because capitalism only cared about money even if money probably wouldn't be enough to save you. It would be something completely different if you had fuck you money like Midas.
Annabeth and Chrysaor had left us to go buy food for all of us. We had been driving for what had felt like an eternity even with the fact that I was sure we probably broke the sound barrier many times while Chrysaor was driving.
I sat with Percy on the hood of the car. The clouds over us were dark, angry, menacing. Dark angry clouds without lightning because the master Bolt was missing, because Zeus thought Percy had stolen it.
The world was falling into a war that would probably be as monstrous and violent as the Titanomachia.
It would be fair, logic to say that this war couldn't be called a simple mere war. This was an Olympiomachy and my best friend was in the middle of it.
It was the world against us, immortal beings older than civilization against us.
The worst is that they didn't care how many would die. The gods didn't care about the destruction they would surely bring to the world, to nature by fighting.
I hated humans to be honest. I hated the way they destroyed and ruined the world around them. I hated how they twisted and changed things from beautiful to ugly.
They were inherently poisonous to this world. This was in their nature. The exceptions amongst them, the ones worthy of respect like Sally Jackson were not strong enough to do, to change anything.
I hated them for what they were doing to what was Pan's domain yet I didn't want to suffer the way they did.
I didn't want horrors to rise from the sea and hurt them. I didn't want them to die, to be cursed for things that weren't their fault.
There were a lot of things I wanted. There were a lot of things I wanted to be different but I was just like those humans I both despised and felt pity for.
I was just a useless Satyr with too many failures. I wasn't brave. I wasn't smart. I wasn't born talented.
Maybe if I was, I could have helped my uncle Ferdinand. There weren't any messages or announcements of his death but we all knew.
Uncle loved his family, he loved us, he loved me. If he was still alive, I'm sure he would have contacted us, talked to us, or sent us letters or something but he didn't and it most likely meant that he was dead.
I wonder, did he feel scared? Was it quick? Was it slow? I hope it was the former.
Maybe if I was more than useless Grover, Grover who always fuck things up, Thalia would still be there, maybe Percy's mom would too.
My fingers played with the strings of the guitar that had been given to me by Percy's dad. The simple melody it created felt calming and comforting.
I didn't know what to think of the God. He was everything and nothing I expected him to be.
Who didn't know of the legendary wrath of the lord of the sea? Who didn't know in the moonlit world of the atrocities he committed in a fit of rage? Of the Civilizations, Islands that sank to the bottom of his realm? Of the way, he left in his wake only destruction. Humanity would have been way more advanced if it hadn't suffered so much from the anger of the god.
I knew of the fact that he personally made the life of Odysseus hell because of what the man did to Polyphemus.
The thing is that I would have never thought he would do something similar because of Percy. Polyphemus may be a monster but monsters are immortal. The line between a god and a monster is thinner than most know.
At least, that's what being a Satyr made me think.
Percy was a demigod, half god but also half mortal. Gods didn't care about half-bloods. The grass was green, the sky blue and Gods didn't care about demigods.
Well, maybe they did when those demigods could be useful. We all knew this. This was the norm.
This is why Poseidon declaring war against Zeus, against all of Olympus because of his brother was unexpected.
The god had a lot to lose yet instead of doing what was expected, Poseidon chose his son. The Lord of the Ocean was risking everything because of a simple demigod.
This was madness, this was wonderful, this was terrifying.
I turned my gaze toward Percy. One of his hands was playing with the pearls of his collar while his gaze seemed fixed on the streets and the humans walking. He had changed.
He wasn't the Percy I had met in Goode. It wasn't as if he had grown 6 feet or something crazy but it was clear to my eyes that things were different.
It seemed as if he had passed a day in the Aphrodite cabin. He still looked like Percy but I would say he looked more if it made any sense as if some magic had been used on him and removed any visible imperfections and enhanced everything good.
He didn't look human anymore. He looked like a figure removed straight up from one of The Japanese-drawn books ('manga, she had called them manga,' my mind whispered to me) by Drew Tanaka.
He looked as if he could easily call himself the child of a god of beauty. He looked like a god who had tried taking human form and had failed at copying the imperfections inherent to a human appearance.
I remember how he had fought against Alecto, how the world shook under their blows and how I feared and thought that each moment would be his last.
I remember how he held himself against a kindly one, against an enforcer of Hades, against a daughter of Nyx.
Maybe calling him a simple demigod wasn't right. A simple demigod wouldn't have been able to do what he did.
What he had done was something coming straight from the myths, from the feet of Gods and those who came so close to them that to this day, they were still immortalized like Heracles and Achilles.
A part of me wondered. Was Poseidon doing this because he loved his son or was it because of the great prophecy?
Demigods became stronger by growing up. It was why it was relatively easy for demigods to be undetected by monsters or us Satyrs when they were younger.
I imagined Percy at sixteen. What would he be able to do if he was capable of fighting and winning against a Kindly one while not past twelve-year-olds?
Would he be able to stand proud against an Olympian? Would he be able to destroy this world with his bare hands? Was Poseidon going to war for his son only because he wanted to use him to successfully dethrone Zeus?
Did it even matter? Things were already bad. Did it matter that they could become worse in the future when they already were?
Percy turned his head to look at me "Is there something on my face Grover?" Percy asked me.
A chuckle escaped me as I turned away from him "No, there's nothing Percy," I told him.
There was no point in fearing, doubting or worrying about the future. Percy was my friend, a loyal one.
He was someone who didn't deserve anything that was happening right now. I may have failed him and his mother before but I wouldn't again.
I don't care about what could happen to me. As long as I could help him bring back his mom, I would be content. Death came to all. I just hope that when I die, it'll be bravely without regret for something I care about.
scene*
Gods were the strongest existence in the universe. Not being one and trying to fight against one was akin to an ant fighting against a star.
Fighting a smith god with weapons built by monstrous hands? It was nothing else but ridiculous, crazy yet this was what Aras did with a smile.
"THAT ALL YOU CAN DO!" yelled the Cyclops. The one-eyed monster was clad in an armour that seemed to be made from smooth scales.
"It is just the beginning" Hephaestus answered before throwing at his opponent an anvil the size of a mountain.
The son of Poseidon looked at the approaching anvil and dug his feet into the ground. Steel surged all over his form like a stream before covering his right hand.
"THIS IS THE RESULT OF MY TEARS, OF MY CRAFT!" the child of Poseidon shouted before throwing a punch to the mountain of celestial bronze coming at him.
His fist met resistance. He would have been thrown away if he hadn't dug his feet into the ground. He knew that the only reason why he hadn't been turned to paste was because of his gauntlet.
Mortals dreamt of, wrote and imagined mechanical wonders beyond what even existed in the world of the gods. Those things should have stayed mere fictions and would have normally been except if a god broke the world with their authorities.
Aras said fuck those limitations. Who decided that those things were impossible? Those rules, those impossibilities, he broke them without divine power, without blessing, just with hard and precise work.
All the kinetic energy of the anvil was swallowed by his gauntlet like a voracious leech with blood. Aras felt a grin split in the face "Did you really think it would be this easy!" he said to the Olympian god.
"Let me return your gift," Aras said before unleashing all the kinetic energy he had absorbed in his gauntlet to fuel his throwing.
The anvil left Aras's hand with a loud boom exploding and breaking the ground around him. The mountain of steel tore through the air faster than an object this size should be able to reappear before the smith god.
A sword appeared before the god just before the anvil could reach him. The sword split the anvil as if wasn't even real in two. The divided part of it continued behind the god of the forge and entered into contact with the ocean making an enormous quantity of water more like a tsunami fall on the island of Hephaestus making it shake.
Aras looked at how the water began to cover quickly everything submerging and destroying all the animal and plant life on the island. Everything had happened in less than 2 minutes and the water had already gone over his knees.
The creations the god had displayed had not been spared having been taken by the water only Poseidon knew where.
The god for the first time since their encounter truly looked at him. His vacant expression was gone now replaced by anger "I finally got your attention," Aras said with his smile. "Good".
"I'm an Olympian, boy," the voice of Hephaestus rumbled. The mask of indifference of the god had been lifted. What stood before Aras was the Forge God, the son of the queen of the Heavens.
The heart of Aras was beating. It felt hard to breathe as if something was pressing against his heart yet he wasn't sure he had felt more excited in all of his life than he did now "I know that. I already know who you are Child of Hera. The only thing you need to know about Me is that I'm the person who will surpass you and everything you crafted!"
Aras and Hephaestus were the only living beings on the Island. The Cyclops could feel the attention of his father.
Aras has hidden what he had planned to do because he knew his sire would have tried his best to stop him.
"You're a fool," the voice of Hephaestum boomed like thunder.
They began to appear, with endless different yet perfectly crafted forms. Automatons, beings made by the hands of the god.
They seemed like an all-consuming wave of gold and silver ready to swallow, to destroy him.
A lot of them were replicas, replicas of monsters, of heroes. It was as if Hephaestus had deified with his forge the ones worthy of it.
They were armed with weapons Aras didn't need to be a smith to know were dangerous, peerless, perfect.
Looking at them, the cyclops began to laugh "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Have you gone mad?" the Olympian asked.
"TO THE CONTRARY! I AM HAPPY HEPHAESTUS!"
The arm of the Cyclops moved in an arc. Steel flowed from his armour like a twisted flower to take the shape of a trident.
'Father,' Aras Prayed. 'I ask you, one thing, to not intervene no matter what may happen'.
Time seemed to freeze at that moment. The army of automatons stopped moving. It was also the same thing with the Smith god.
Poseidon had appeared just before Aras. The two of them seemed to be the only ones unaffected.
"What are you doing this child of mine? What are you trying to prove to me?" the god said softly.
Poseidon had always been a good parent to Aras but he had never been a soft and loving one the way he was right now. It seemed the rumours about his father having changed weren't wrong.
"I am doing it for myself Father. It is maybe one of my last chances to challenge Hephaestus. If I lose, I'll be the only one suffering. If I win, I'll have realized my dream and helped you at the same time."
A sigh escaped from Aras's father. Aras could see in the eyes of the god. He was thinking, probably about if he should respect Aras' wishes or not.
The Cyclops hoped it would be the case because if his father wanted to stop him, he would have to use that when he wanted to use it against Hephaestus only.
"Nothing I tell you will change anything, am I wrong Aras?"
"No Father," the Cyclops answered.
"Then win Aras," the god said gazing in the singular eye of his son. "Don't make me lose another child."
Aras nodded at his father before the unnatural calm that had enveloped the world disappeared.
Aras pointed his trident to the incoming army, mystical and arcane energy flaring up around the weapon "MY FATHER IS WATCHING US HEPHAESTUS! LET HIM NOT SUFFER FROM A POOR SHOWING BY NOT GIVING YOUR BEST AGAINST ME!"
Could the mundane win against the divine? Could a half-formed being win against Genius? Could a half-formed being like Aras win against a god? It was time to know.
I'm back! Here is the next chapter of Demiurge. We got a little glimpse into grover mind and another in Aras, an original character. The next chapter will follow his POV at the first person. Is it possible for something mundane to surpass the divine? Can an ant fight against a star and win? Can a fake win against an original? Those sentences were at the origin of Aras' creation. Anyway, I got more chapters on my https//Eileen715 (1 of Demiurge and five of infernal comedy). Don't hesitate to visit.
PS: the comments and the ideas you give could possibly change the end of the fight.
Chapter 32
I was locked in combat with a god. Fighting a deity was an endeavor of incomparable folly, distinctly disparate from engaging with either immortal or mortal opponents.
Gods were not flesh; they were not imbued with life as mortals comprehend it. Rather, they were manifestation, corporeal embodiments of abstract concepts and ideas.
What significance did a blade hold against War itself? What use was a spear against the very sun?
No, to vanquish a god, one needed either unimaginable strength, transcending the natural order or to wield a creation of such magnitude as to rival the infinity they embodied.
I descended amidst the ceaseless automatons like a meteor. My armor coiled around me, both shielding and empowering me, as I crushed the animated weapons wrought of divine metal beneath my feet.
A blade of lightning surged toward my neck, swifter than a lightning bolt of the sky lord.
It moved with such celerity, so flawlessly executed, that evasion seemed futile. I, a mere Cyclops, should have perished.
Yet, were it not for my armor, I would have been killed. My body moved of its own accord, gracefully sidestepping the lethal strike, as though guided by a dancer's finesse.
From the corner of my singular eye, I beheld the world aglow, as if a second sun had dawned, the sword carving a path of devastation through divine steel as if through butter.
Cannons of pressurized water emerged from my shoulders, unleashing torrents upon the foe who moments prior nearly spelled my demise.
The automaton reacted, interposing its sword to deflect the deluge, shielding itself from the onslaught.
Witnessing the devastation wrought by its weapon, the machine clutched within its grasp a divine relic, worthy of eternal acclaim, yet it faltered and shattered.
I observed the automaton's eyes widen in astonishment as the jets of water cleaved through it and its brethren, time and again.
I refused to remain inert amidst the mass of automatons. One of my hands surged forward.
Emerald sparks danced before my palm, evoking the craft of a Greek smith. How could I claim mastery akin to Hephaestus if I could not wield Greek fire to my will?
A torrent of verdant flames erupted upon the automatons, engulfing them and all within reach with savage fervor, rendering them powerless.
This was a dance. Battle was naught but a choreography, where each misstep might prove fatal, yet one I found profoundly exhilarating.
The ground beneath us transmuted into molten lava as the flames consumed all in their path. My armor shifted, densifying and fortifying to safeguard against the inferno. It would be stupid to fall due to a flawed creation.
Amidst the conflagration, I discerned movement, figures resembling half-melted steel abominations, yet driven by an insatiable hunger for my blood.
Propulsors beneath my feet erupted, propelling me airborne. Some automatons pursued by leaping, others by flight.
One approached, wielding a spear fashioned from molten divinity, poised to impale me.
I seized the moment to deactivate my propulsors, hurtling toward it. Its grip on the spear switched, but too late.
My foot collided with its visage, a wisp of green fire illuminating its form before detonating, propelling me skyward once more.
Another automaton materialized, brandishing a sword poised to decapitate me. I met its blade with a thrust of my fist.
Divine steel clashed against my own, the world convulsing in agony, embers dancing between us.
The automaton's visage contorted, a cannon manifesting and targeting me. Unfortunately for it, I possessed two hands.
My other fist collided with the machine's face, hurtling its remnants to the ground, rending the earth beneath.
I alighted once more, my spear rematerializing in my grasp. "I am no prodigious combatant," I ruminated as I skewered dozens of automatons with a single fluid motion.
My propulsors erupted, propelling me into the fray, wreathed in green fire. My spear and fists became instruments of divine retribution, shattering iron and steel.
An automaton evaded before launching a strike toward my visage. I evaded with a flourish, conjuring Greek fire to engulf it.
It was my inaugural foray into true warfare, my first genuine engagement, yetI was the winning, I was the one striking true.
The automatons moved with preternatural skill, almost divine in their precision. With each maneuver, they narrowed the gap, each strike rending the earth as I evaded.
A winged automaton, bearing the semblance of a youthful deity, soared toward me, its steel feathers ablaze.
My spear deftly deflected each projectile, igniting the ground around me as they met their demise.
I cocked my arm, hurling my spear toward the airborne automaton. It maneuvered adeptly, evading the projectile before resuming its advance.
A surge of exultation crossed its flawless face before morphing into shock as my spear found its mark, rending its mechanical heart asunder.
The spear continued its course, disintegrating the automaton and returning to my grasp. "This should not be within my capabilities."
I may not possess innate talent or strength, but what I was sure of was that I was the o ly worthy of the title of the greatest smith. If strength eludes me, I just needed to forge the means to attain it.
My armor serves as both guide and mentor, augmenting my every action, rectifying my every misstep, and acting autonomously in the face of imperceptible threats.
I have charted a path, a trajectory toward Hephaestus himself. I poised myself as an Olympian sprinter before propelling myself forward.
Propulsors surged, accelerating me ever faster. The air resisted my advance, yet I pressed onward, confronted by an inexhaustible horde of automatons.
My spear vanished from my grasp, trailing a deep ocean blue in its wake. I thrust my hand rearward, Greek fire erupting and propelling me swifter still. A resounding crack, akin to a celestial cannonade, heralded my passage.
I materialized before the Olympian deity, spear in hand. Greek fire enveloped its tip as I directed it toward the god's countenance.
Walls of steel materialized, obstructing my spear's path. Undeterred, I pressed forward, channeling every ounce of my resolve.
My armor undulated as propulsors surged, propelling me with greater force. Steel rent asunder as my spear breached the god's defenses.
I acted instinctively, hurtling toward his visage, spear poised for the kill. Yet my strike met naught but flesh, failing to draw blood.
The waters parted behind him as if by divine decree. The earth behind him lay desolate, an abyss yawning in its wake, yet the god remained steadfast.
His gaze fell upon me, as though beholding me for the first time, acknowledging my existence as more than a mere nuisance.
With a gesture, he dislodged my spear, his thumb tracing the wound I had inflicted moments prior.
Golden ichor stained his flesh-a mere scratch, akin to a paper cut, yet for me, it resonated as a monumental triumph.
"You have drawn blood," his voice boomed like the dark chasms of a volcano.
I felt a grin split my countenance. "Naturally," I declared, facing him. "I am here to vanquish you. How could I achieve that without drawing forth your ichor?"
"You possess great talent," the deity remarked with unexpected tenderness. "Wasting such prowess here would be regrettable. Return to your sire, child. Depart this place for your own sake. You may be skilled, but confronting me seriously would test even your abilities."
"I shall not retreat, Hephaestus," I retorted, leveling my spear at him. This moment marked my opportunity to demonstrate my value to myself and the world. Better to perish here than to flee.
The god sighed like a disappointed patriarch learning of his offspring's follies. "Behold all you have done, all for a mere drop of ichor."
"I am a cyclops. Hard labor has never daunted me, Hephaestus," I affirmed, before unleashing a torrent of Greek fire upon him at close range. Everything that bled could die.
The intensity of the stream heightened as runes etched into my armor ensured the flames burned fiercer and more fiercely.
It engulfed the god's form in sickly green hues, deadly yet mesmerizing. "Truly foolish!" I heard the incinerating deity scoff as he advanced towards me.
I relinquished my spear and conjured a second stream of Greek fire with my free hand, yet to no avail.
My propulsors obeyed my will, propelling me into the air, away from the god. A voice inside urged me to flee, to escape.
I quashed this impulse. Flee? Absurd! With a mere thought, my spear reappeared in hand.
The automatons stood motionless, frozen in eerie stillness, their hands clasped in prayer.
"Fire, harming me?!" the god's voice thundered mockingly. "I AM FIRE! I AM THE CREATOR OF GREEK FIRE! DO YOU THINK MY OWN CREATION COULD HARM ME, CYCLOPS? COULD AN EMBER EXTINGUISH A STAR?"
Though I knew Hephaestus was the god of fire, I believed Greek fire, especially in its modified form, could counter his advantage. Alas, I was mistaken.
I observed the fire shifting and morphing into unnatural shapes around the god's silhouette.
The flames condensed, taking form. I witnessed a hand within the fiery silhouette clench before the fire transformed, revealing a weapon resembling a sniper rifle in the god's grasp.
Realizing his seriousness, I beheld the god's form grotesquely expanding, radiant gold coursing through his being.
It evoked the god assuming his true form, yet something felt amiss. A part of me recoiled at the grotesque sight, urging me to gouge out my eyes at the abomination before me.
Suppressing the burgeoning madness and horror, I tightened my grip on my sword.
The world seemed altered, transformed. My scanner activated, revealing sights invisible to my Cyclops eye alone.
An orange wave emanated from the god, permeating everything it touched with a taint of orange, altering the air, the ground, the automatons, even the sky itself, extending beyond the horizon.
The wave dissipated upon reaching the emerald ocean beneath my scanners.
My armor rippled as it analyzed and devised defenses against this phenomenon, harnessing its potential.
A surge of data flooded my mind as my armor completed its analysis, confirming my suspicions: divine authority. This was the divine authority of Hephaestus.
The god's form continued to shift and evolve. His hair blazed with vivacity, resembling living flames, while his once disfigured visage transformed into one of regal handsomeness.
He towered over me, no longer resembling a crippled artisan. He no longer appeared as Hephaestus.
With a flicker of his gaze, his sniper rifle transformed into a hammer of Greek fire.
I hastily crossed my arms, empowering the runes inscribed on my armor to shield me. The hammer collided with my arm, plunging me into darkness as I felt myself plummet through the island and the ocean below.
The water evaporated from the force of the blow, leaving a void amidst the ocean. Only my lineage prevented me from being engulfed by the ocean's attempt to fill the void left by my descent.
My armor pierced the ocean's darkness, affording me a glimpse of the god's form.
Hephaestus gazed in my direction, the air shimmering around him as the sky filled with countless weapons.
With a mere gesture, the god unleashed them upon me. Their sheer multitude overwhelmed me. Dodging seemed futile!
"Summon your father," a scared voice within me urged. I knew a single call would bring my father to my aid. One call and I would be safe. "Just one call," I mused, rejecting the notion and spurning my own aspirations!
As if I would retreat! My armor responded to my will, adapting and shifting. I believed in myself! I believed in what I had wrought with my own hands!
The number of divine weapons mattered naught. If Hephaestus forged millions of swords, then I would forge even more! I would fashion superior arms!
Ceasing to think, I yielded to my armor and the runes embedded within. Spear clashed against sword, sword against shield, as I defiantly faced the smith god's arsenal.
A sword, swifter than my armor's reaction, tore through my side. Yet I pressed onward, utilizing the pain as fuel.
What was pain compared to ambition? What was pain compared to greatness? My armor shifted, mending the wound and reinforcing my resolve.
Each collision reverberated throughout my being, yet with each clash, my weapons grew mightier.
"Evolution achieved!" a mechanical voice declared. A grin crept across my face. My armor, my magnum opus, was not perfect, for perfection itself was flawed.
What rendered my armor unrivaled, what emboldened me to challenge a god, was its semblance of life.
My armor learned, it adapted. Fashioned from my blood, blessed with adamantine scales by my sire, and infused with a fragment of my soul, it was tempered in the blood of an elder Kraken.
Given ample time, my armor could adapt to any challenge! With my next move, the sky split asunder, a chasm rending the heavens before sealing shut.
All of Hephaestus's weapons were obliterated, erased from existence. Even the god himself was not unscathed.
A gaping wound marred his form, evidence of his bisecting. His raised hammer, intended for protection, lay cleaved asunder.
Ichor spewed forth from the god's chest like a geyser, yet he stood motionless as a statue.
"You Dare! YOU DARE!" the god's voice thundered. Chaos erupted as the divine voice reverberated like a shockwave.
The world shifted, clouds darkening akin to Gaia's mourning shroud.
My connection with the Ocean was abruptly severed. Ash and soot descended from the heavens.
Beneath me, the ground gave way to endless lava, volcanoes dominating the landscape.
I stood in awe as realization dawned upon me. My father held sway over the Oceans, his brethren claimed dominion over the sky and the underworld, and now, amid this shifting realm, Hephaestus asserted his own domain.
It should have come as no surprise. Why would a deity of Hephaestus's stature not possess the ability to create a world?
My reverie was abruptly interrupted by a punch that sent me hurtling into the molten depths. Pain flared on the corner of my visage, as if something had forcibly rearranged my features.
In moments, the agony subsided as my armor initiated repairs, minute tendrils of metal weaving their mending.
My body acted instinctively, propulsors launching me to the side just as the god descended upon my previous location.
He flickered like a fading ember, a colossal gauntlet hurtling toward my countenance. With a swift motion, I deflected his arm, sending it careening past my shoulder, before retaliating with a punishing blow to his nose.
Threads of lava snaked around us, emanating from the god's vicinity, impeding his careening trajectory.
The god retaliated with a headbutt, divine flesh rending through my armor, darkness engulfing me as if my eye had imploded.
Yet, even amidst the abyss, I sensed his presence, a propelled knee colliding with his abdomen.
Spears of lava were hurled in response, met with erupting metal from my armor.
Undeterred, I followed with a roundhouse kick, only to encounter a shield materializing before my leg.
Activating Greek fire at my command, I felt my foot connect with his neck, severing his head.
My vision cleared as my armor completed its healing. "Hephaestus, god of fire, heat, and lava," I pondered.
Already submerged in his realm, I refused to cede control of the battle. I ascended, emerging from the lava ocean, away from the god.
Milliseconds later, I evaded, my armor sidestepping the blurry assailants. A behemoth volcano exploded behind me as the projectiles I had dodged collided with it.
A spear materialized in my hand, swatting away a projectile before tracing a crimson path across a chain of volcanoes.
Launching the spear with practiced precision, I beheld the god emerge from the lava, sword in hand, poised to intercept the projectile.
The sword cleaved through the spear, shattering it before breaking in two.
Undeterred, the god gestured toward the sky above me. Following his gaze, I beheld a star hurtling toward me.
Grinning wider, I welcomed the challenge, but before I could utter a word, a hammer turned my ribs to pulp.
Fiery mechanical wings sprouted from his back, his next swing aimed at my skull.
My armor shielded me, my arm absorbing the blow, though the hammer shattered my hand.
With grim determination, I manipulated my armor, encasing the weapon's head in steel tendrils.
Propelling myself with my remaining hand, I spun around the god, delivering a blow to his fractured visage.
His form vanished into the star above. "Is that all?" I pondered aloud, when I should have known better than tempting fate.
Chains erupted from the star, ensnaring my right hand before pulling me toward the stellar inferno.
As my armor adapted to the plummeting temperature, I descended into the star's surface, enduring temperatures exceeding ten thousand degrees.
Though discomfort and scalding permeated, my resilient Cyclops physiology, me being a son of Poseidon coupled with my armor's protection, forestalled my descent into Tartarus.
The chains led to the god. I knew it was time to end this. If I didn't do so, I knew I would lose. With a swift motion, I severed the chains, freeing my hand.
Gazing upon the unscathed yet wrathful deity, I checked the time with the clock embedded in my armor. Though the battle felt like an eternity, scarcely more than two minutes had passed.
A sword and a spear materialized in my hands, while a hammer manifested in the god's left arm.
"It seems we still got a lot left in the tank Hephaestus," I spoke. "Let's settle once and for all the best amongst us!" I said before hurling myself to the god who copied me.
What do y'all think of this fight? Do you think Aras will be the winner? Did you notice my inspirations for this fight? Also, I out crumbs of foreshadowing in this chapter. The one's finding it will be able to read all the chapters of my story in advance without paying anything. Also, got a p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / Eileen715. You could support with one dollar if you want to or pay for more to have access to more chapters or simply nothing because you don't want to or can't. In any case, it's fine
Chapter 33
We were clashing in the centre of a star. Even though my armour protected me against most of the harm of it, at least for now, it didn't mean that it was comfortable.
I had walked before in one of the abandoned forges of the Elder Cyclops, children of The Earth Mother and the Sky Father.
It had been as if I had left completely the domain and the presence of my father to an inferno just waiting for the good moment to swallow me.
I stopped trying to dodge. Doing so showed itself useless. My armour was in a constant flux of evolution.
What was once taking seconds was now taking milliseconds. The healing becomes with each clash between the god and me less a botched work only focusing on me surviving and more on improving me.
I was paradoxically becoming stronger and weaker. Each moment was one that could be my last.
Each moment was one where the God's cosmic energy formed and twisted in various shapes only with the goal of ending my existence.
Each moment was one where I felt alive.
With a twirl of the fingers of the gods, spears made of lightning and something else that made my instincts scream at me to be careful were launched at me.
' World alteration,' my armour fed to my mind. Authority used. Divine weapons incoming. Analyse… copy.
I didn't try to dodge rushing toward them unbothered. Before they could Pierce my flesh, spears of dark metal appeared from thin air and collided against them.
Divine weapons clashed creating a vacuum in the center of the star before disappearing, collapsing.
My spear ignited with the thrum of divinity. The more I was fighting, the more I was learning and the more I was learning, the better I was.
I couldn't perfectly copy and understand Hephaestus' attacks. What my armour was trying to do was crack, decyphering them to their bare components so that I could understand them because understanding the impossible meant winning.
Ice, no calling it ice would be an understatement. Entropy recovered my spear. Hephaestus was a god of fire but not in the traditional sense.
Hephaestus was fire in the sense that he was life, advancement, civilization. I could see it now because of my armour.
Hephaestus was evolution. He was potential. Trying to fight him with Potential would be foolish especially when I just grasped at it. It would be like throwing a ball full of water at my father. Completely useless.
What I could do was use the information I gained to create something else equal to his potential.
In my veins and essence ran the Ichor of Poseidon. I wasn't blessed with the control of the sea but nevertheless, the sea was a part of me.
The thing is the sea was ancient, old. Some myths say that The Earth Mother Birthed the Ocean.
Others said that the Ocean predated her. Pontus in his sunken city slept a dreamless dream some sages shared when not in recluse or in the throes of madness.
What I knew is that by using my connection to the sea and adding it to the data I had been able to collect, entropy met against potential and potential fizzled out for an instant.
The god's eyes widened. He tried to dodge. He failed to do so completely. The blade of my spear went through his arm separating it at the elbow.
I rotated, my spear moving into an arc to bisect the god at the Hip. Flames solidified thickening to create armour.
My spear cut through it but not fast enough. It had been able to slow me a nanosecond and that nanosecond was all the god had needed to retreat.
I stopped to watch him. The battle hadn't been kind to him. Even though he was the immortal here, saying that he had the advantage would be a lie. I felt disappointed… yeah, disappointed. Was that all? Was that the peak I always searched to surpass?
"Is that all you can do?" I asked him seriously. Is this all the best you can give?
The god stayed silent, his gaze turned toward his stump. "It won't come back easily you know," I told him.
It shouldn't even come back at all but he was a god and gods and bullshit were synonyms. "All this time, I first saw you as a fly and after a mosquito, I needed to crush," the voice of the god rumbled.
"But you just showed me that you were dangerous, too dangerous to be allowed to live. You created something capable of hurting an Olympian. I can't allow your creation to propagate."
"Weren't you already taking me seriously?" I asked him. He had changed. I had seen his authority expand. I had thought that this was his true form.
The form of the god began to fizzle out like static "I hate taking my godly form," the voice of the god rumbled. "Be glad Aras. I acknowledge your existence."
I felt my body being moved. " Temperature rising too quickly," the robotic voice of my armour spoke before I emerged from the star.
The realm was crumbling… no, shifting all around me. My scanners were analysing the phenomenon but there was too much information, too much data that even with my augmented mind, it was nearly impossible to analyse.
"Do you know why they called me a cripple even though I am an Olympian, Cyclops?" I heard the god say his voice both everywhere and nowhere.
My mind focused on the question. There was an explanation, wisdom and maybe victory in the knowledge.
I needed to think. Think Aras. Think! Hephaestus was born of Hera and Zeus and when he was born, thrown out of Olympus because of his ugliness.
Not all the myths agreed on this version though. In others, Zeus had never been Hephaestus' father. Hephaestus had been born because his mother had wanted a child without cheating on her adulterer husband. She had wanted to show Zeus that she didn't need him.
Hephaestus was born ugly. Hephaestus was born ugly and was crippled by a fall from Olympus. Gods were born perfect. Gods couldn't, shouldn't be crippled.
Hephaestus was born imperfect. Hephaestus was crippled. Was Hephaestus not a god? No, I had felt, I had seen with my scanners how he used divine authority to create weapons, to create this world.
The Hecatoncheires and elder Cyclops weren't gods too but they were immortals capable of standing proudly at the side of their siblings Titans.
Did it meant that… , no it must be something else but imagine if it was actually that. If it did, things would start making sense about a lot of things.
Hephaestus had called himself an Olympian. "You aren't a god, are you?" I spoke softly. It all matched.
"My mother full of hubris tried to do the same thing as the Night and The Earth mother. I am like them she had dared to think!" the bitter voice of the god spread.
"My mother tried to create a god, one on par with the divine bastards of her husband. She tried."
"And she failed," I finished softly.
"Yes!" the god laughed. It was an ugly sound, the one of scraps of iron tearing into each other.
"She failed! I wasn't born right! I wasn't born what she wanted me to be so she threw me from Olympus. I'm sure she had hoped that doing so would have killed me. I was after all in her words just an upjumped half-god ."
"But you survived. You were still divine and more than that, you were born with divine domains."
"This is the funny thing thing, " the god chuckled. Over me, something began to take shape. It was big, absurdly and it was coming from me who had seen the wonders and horrors of my Father's realm.
It was as if fire and Metal had intertwines neither losing their shapes, connected in a way that only felt wrong. The thing had too many mouths, mouths filled with mouths, mouths open in what I recognized clearly as agony, mouths from which silver Ichor fell down and dripped before fading into nothing and dripping again in an endless cycle.
Arms made of cinders and brimstone grew from its flesh like the branches of a gnarly tree. " Ugly, isn't it? " the Olympian because it was Hephaestus I realized spoke.
Why was he seeming further and further?
Was I falling?
Why was I falling?
Thinking… thinking… what was I?
When did thinking become so hard?
" A thena once said to me that history doesn't repeat itself but rhyme. I fell on the island of Lemnos and almost died. Would have probably done so if the humans who had lived on the island, the Sintians hadn't taken pity and tried to save my life. I wouldn't have survived if they hadn't made sacrifices and prayed for help to save me. I would have died if Tethys, my Vová and Eurynymone hadn't come."
System failing, system failing. Urgence protocol activated. Urgence protocol activation failing. Too much damage. Survival of the host is endangered.
" I was just like you Aras, the Cyclops. I wasn't a god. I was born with no domain but I dreamt of being great, of proving to the one who had discarded me my worth. The Sintians were great smiths so I learnt from them. I pushed myself, never stopping no matter how hard it was, no matter how gruelling it was, no matter how pathetic it made me look ," Hephaestus spoke.
Images of a young boy assaulted my mind and for a brief moment gave me clarity. Images of a young boy yearning for more, someone just like me.
" I became good. So good that with my hands, I was able to create miracles. I became so good that the ones around me stopped seeing me as their peer, as just exceptional and hard-working. They began to worship me and the more they worshipped me, the better I became and the better I became, the more they worshipped me. It came to a point that they gave me a name. Hephaestus Polymetis, Hephaestus of the many crafts. Names for your last lesson are the backbones of domains. There's no point in hiding anything from you because you won't survive, " the god spoke with a certainty-filled voice.
" They're domains and At the same time not. A god may have a domain without a name even most of the time, they followed shortly but names in themselves could be said to be keys to a domain. They gave me names, multiples but I wanted more. It wasn't enough if I wanted to be their equal, if I wanted to be recognized, and respected! So I did what I knew best, I made myself better. A true smith can use everything to forge, to create something new so I use the names I gained to create a god! If only you had listened, if only you hadn't been so proud, you and I would have created so many wonders but fret not, I saw your invention. I'll remake it, better as proof to the world that you Aras were great. Now fall".
My visions went black. I knew I was dying. I could feel my armour trying to do something but it was only delaying the unavoidable. I would die here. I would lose here.
I fought and made a god bleed. I'm sure that my father's servants had used the opportunity I gave them to ransack Hephaestus' forge. It counted for something right? Then why did it feel so bittersweet?
I wasn't disappointed because I was dying. I was disappointed because, in the end, the only thing I truly have been able to do was push the Olympian to reveal his best. Was I truly going to go out like that?
Nah, fuck that.
The spark of divinity inside of me that I inherited from my father, which I had refused to use because of my pride moved at my command.
I was a smith and Hephaestus had said it. What kind of smith was unable to create wonders with metaphysical components? Only a bad one and I wasn't one!
I wrenched it out, this spark. I ignored the pain akin to my heart having been torn out of my chest.
My body didn't answer me but it was fine. My armour had improved me at every level. It had improved my mind. Things passed, memories of things rushing perfectly remembered. I could forge with my mind.
I was a blacksmith. It didn't matter how strong, or how horrifying the world could be. I just needed to create with my hands, with my soul a miracle, a phantasm to tear the nightmare above apart.
Threads, microscopic threads appeared only visible, only being able to be felt by me.
Hundreds, Thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, billions. They multiplied again and again and again.
Those threads, they were me. They were my eyes. They were my hands. They were my souls. They dug deep into the world surrounding me at my will.
My body, my mind and my soul were broken. I could see it so clearly with them. My soul, no my essence, I wasn't human was leaking like a broken faucet.
I could fix it right now but doing so, doing something akin to intruding on the domain of my uncle the rich one would be leaving me unable to attack, to hurt Hephaestus, to win.
According to my will, my body bent, nothing but a puppet for the billions of strings manipulating me, puppeting me.
The smart thing would be to try to run. The smart thing would be to try to call my father. Doing The smart thing would be synonymous with betraying myself.
Better fade, essence sucked into Tartarus, changed and shifted into something that wasn't me than continuing living while I could have touched my dream just if I had tried.
No, I would not heal myself even though it meant doom for me. I wouldn't heal myself but direct some of the threads to my leaking essence.
It was nothing than temporary, probably buying me nothing but ten milliseconds at best and that was if I didn't redirect all the threads to what I was about to do.
Ten milliseconds. Ten milliseconds would be enough. Hephaestus had been right when he had said I would perish today but he had been wrong thinking he would be the one to prevail.
The Olympian being what he was because of hard work, because of grit and pain only made me want to win even more.
My body stood shakily, nothing but a vessel. My threads, they gave me sight. They gave me everything I needed to triumph.
"A name? You gained a name?! No ," the abomination in the sky chuckled softly before it exploded in full-blown laughter. Reality screamed in agony as a sound that shouldn't exist came to life from the mouth of the Olympian " You made one! You used your own inherent divinity! No, it is more than that! A symbol of power! You turned your essence into a symbol of power! You did what only Primordials, the Elder Cyclops and I have been able to do !"
9 milliseconds. I had only 9 milliseconds left. I didn't have time to ponder about the words of the Olympian.
" Crush," I pushed my body to whisper before the world bent. My threads, they dug into atoms, dug even more in a realm of the infinetmenstal small and dug again until they reached for the domain, the state of reality I now knew where Gods' powers operated.
The false world of Hephaestus broke at my will. The weight of an entire world collapsed on the form of the Olympian. Only my thread kept me safe in a limbo state untouchable for a brief instant to the madness I had brought for.
Billions of tons that did nothing to the Olympian. I could see it. Matter had simply stopped existing near him. It just meant I needed to do worse.
Above me, the sun fell. No, it wasn't one I realized. It was just a sword the size of it. Calculations ran into my mind analysing the phenomena, proof that my armour even gone had more than served its purpose.
The sword was made of Plasma my threads fed to me. A sword with a heat of at least 100753789 degrees.
Cold, I needed cold. My threads surged to my will and shifted the world. " Absolute Zero," I commanded them and time stopped.
The sword the size of the sun had frozen. It had also stopped falling. Gravity, I had frozen gravity itself a part of me realized.
Even then, the Olympian moved when it should have been impossible. "My fire ," the Olympian spoke. " Is Evolution itself! Do you truly think that would be enough?"
Before my eyes, the sword began to melt the ice covering it. No, I would not let it do so! I pulled with my threads.
They tied themselves around the hilt of the sword dragging it to cut through the flesh of the Olympian.
The sword touched Hephaestus and sank as if he was an amorphous being. The threads I used weren't spared. Even though I tried to pull them back, some of them sank too in the flesh of the Olympian making pain blossom even more into my soul.
They've been cut away from me. It's as if something had taken clipper, clinched them on my flesh and pulled savagely but with my soul. '6 Milliseconds,' I calculated. 'There were only 6 milliseconds left.'
" Is that all that you can do ?" the voice of the Olympian moved through the void between us. " This is no more an affair of war between our sires! This is a battle to see who's the best smith! Me, the greatest in all history and you who I dare to call the greatest I saw in the modern age! "
5 milliseconds left. I only had 5 milliseconds.
Hephaestus was right. I was still hesitating. I hadn't gone all out. Where was my imagination?! Would I be satisfied with a less-than-satisfactory showing? Hell no!
Space and time began to distort as I copied what I had once seen the Olympian do. To beat him, I needed to think like a god! To beat him, I needed to become a god and what was a god without a domain?!
I was now standing on an island in the middle of what I knew was an endless sea. Before living in Atlantis, before learning the way of the forge, I had been a child, the only child of a nymph.
She hadn't loved me. It had always been clear to me how she had only looked at me with disappointment and disgust as if I had failed her just by existing.
She hadn't loved me yet I had. She hadn't loved me yet those days had been some of my best memories because on this island, no matter how much she hated me, no matter how different I wished things would have been, I had been free!
I had been free because I had been ignorant. I had been free because, at this time, I only had thought she and I existed. I had loved this island because by being on it, I had felt as if I was everything I could possibly be, not the disappointment my mother thought me as. I had felt like a god.
It had been childish and idiotic. Still was and yet… and yet! This was an island surrounded by an infinite ocean.
An ocean mine to control only! An ocean mine to shape only! this world was one where I was god because this was a forge, my forge.
Starlights, flames and cosmic weapons each capable of shaking cities to their cores and splitting mountains in two rained from above.
The sea moved, copies of the weapons, superior copies created by the Olympian were sent back to clash against the original.
As long as Hephaestus was in this realm, everything he created would directly be analysed and sent back to my mind to be reconstructed by my threads under the infinite ocean surrounding me.
'3 Milliseconds. Only 3 Milliseconds left,' I thought as the sky shone like a cosmic tapestry being weaved before my eyes.
I was in my world. I was the one with the advantage here! It didn't matter that Hephaestus could seemingly create weapons straight out of fairy tales!
He was now on my turf! Two scarlet spears with barbs met above me tearing through space. The one Hephaestus created shattered while mine only cracked before going forward and being broken by another weapon created by the Olympian.
All over the world I had created, this was happening. Millions and millions of weapons so much more numerous than sand particles clashed.
'2 milliseconds left,' I noted my essence nothing but a bonfire to the star that it was.
I was winning. Hephaestus was slowly but surely losing ground. Weapons were coming closer and closer to puncturing his flesh, from hurting him. The problem was that it was happening too slowly.
I didn't have the luxury of continuing this for longer. A spear, a simple-looking one appeared in my right hand.
It meant that I needed to go claw out victory! The Olympian was distracted I knew. By acknowledging me, he had done me a favour. He had stopped holding back or holding back completely which meant that every weapon I copied was one worthy, powerful enough to affect the Olympian even if most would have been akin to the bite of a mosquito.
I switched with a white Jian meters away from the Olympian. Thousands of skeleton hands made of fire rushed at me the Olympian seemingly expecting such a thing from me.
One contact I knew would be my loss. Only one contact. Fortunately, I knew what to do to not be touched.
Darkness pooled above my brow manipulated by my threads to take the shape of a helm. What I was wearing was a copy, one badly made because I had been fortunate or unfortunate enough to never have seen the rich one's symbol of power but even then, everyone knew of its existence.
More than that, even though I may have not seen the Helm in real life, items of invisibility, items originally made by Hekate and Hephaestus were tools well known that even though they didn't give a hundredth of the powers of the Helm could be a decent substitute when they were of good quality.
They were copies from the Helm of Darkness. They didn't make the wearer simply invisible. They made the wearer undetectable by reality at least at a mortal level.
By using this concept, the idea of a copy and its original, I created a crown. Already it was fading out but it was okay.
It was still a copy made by my own hands! I phased out of reality, the hands not touching me because I shifted for an instant out of reality giving me an opening to strike.
It was a minuscule one, a more than microscopic one I would have missed if it wasn't for my threads.
My grip on the spear tightened. '0.20 Milliseconds left.'
A true wound wasn't one physical. Physical ones could with time heal, and mend. Inflicting Physical wounds to gods or similar beings was useless.
To hurt a god or something akin to it, one needed to strike at their soul, at their essence, at their domain. I could see it so clearly guided by my threads.
My spear flew out of my hand pushed by my threads. I watched the spear dig into the abominable artificial flesh of the Olympian, its goal the core of Hephaestus.
I watched how the body of the Olympian shifted, changed trying to protect him leaving me undisturbed.
My spear was slowing down, the thread not seemingly enough to pierce the Olympian. '0.10 milliseconds.'
That was okay. My body was a wreck, a broken thing that should be allowed to rest. I was bleeding and what was blood if not a liquid?
My mother was a nymph and my Father was a god yet I was born a cyclops, a creature considered a monster.
There were other nymphs who went to have children with gods. The messenger of the gods' mother was one of them yet he had been born a god, not a monster.
It is only now through what I learned due to my now destroyed armour, the Olympian and my threads that I finally understood why.
I was Poseidon's son yet I had never been able to bend water to my will, to make miracles with it until today unlike most of his demigods and godly children.
Monsters were failed gods. Gods who hadn't inherited enough from their divine parent, who weren't loved enough or lucky enough at the moment of their conception.
Even then, I had inherited a part of my spark of divinity, of my essence from my father, Poseidon.
This is why I had been able to breathe underwater, to understand the basic mermish tongues without learning them.
'It such a shame that it was only now,' I thought 'that I cracked it'. My Blood moved leaving my body, a proof of my understanding of the laws that ruled this world, to take the shape of a singular bullet.
The bullet moved faster than lighting to perfectly end at the butt of the spear to push it deeper and break through the flesh of Hephaestus.
Checkmate I thought as the spear flew and cut Hephaestus shredding what I knew were the links to his domains, his names.
0.2 Millisecond.
My eye focused on the last thing I would see, the broken and wailing shape of Hephaestus, the greatest Smith in history.
'0.1 Millisecond'.
'I win!' I thought with a smile as I watched him fall apart before everything went dark.
Sorry to not have written anything for so long. Stuff happened IRL but things go better. I always loved Mythologies. When I was younger, my grandpa told me tales of Greek gods and monsters. He gave me a book on mythology with most Greek myths at twelve before I even read Percy Jackson. In the original Myths, the distinction between monsters and gods is really really thin. Monsters most of the time are created by gods or children and descendants of gods. In the Myths, the Furies are immortal Daimoms( gods with one domain to be resumed), same with Echidna. This is why I always found baffling how Percy won in the first book against Alecto and her sisters so easily. If they were so easy to beat. If an untrained demigod no older than twelve could beat them, no one would have feared them at all. I wanted through this story to try to make it more realistic, to make the books more compliant with the original myths. About the Hephaestus I created, I was inspired by the original Myths and an Undertow of Sand of Shujin to make him. Hephaestus in the original myths killed giants (children of Gaia) when only a god and a demigod should together be able to do so. More than that, Gods can Shapeshift. They can't even die normally. Ask Kronos. They regenerate from almost everything and this why the Olympians scattered the body parts of Kronos all over Tartarus and even then, it wasn't enough yet Hephaestus was said to be crippled because Hera threw him from Olympus at birth. Hephaestus was born ugly, not crippled. If he was a god, what Hera did shouldn't have mattered. Hephaestus shouldn't be called a cripple or even ugly when gods can shapeshift unless Hephaestus isn't one but something close or an offshoot of it like with the Hekatoncheires, the elder cyclops and monsters. Anyway, hope you like this chapter. Don't hesitate to comment about what you think of the chapter or even my theory about gods and monsters. Discussion literally feed me. Also I got a ( p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / Eileen715 ) and I am working on interesting things. Don't hesitate to visit if you want to support me maybe with 1 dollar or read other interesting stuff.
Chapter 34
Things were changing. Fate's edicts were being discarded. The order of the world, one that had been meticulously crafted was fraying at the edges and Benthesicyme only found pleasure in the fact.
War, the goddess thought was something that she had been waiting for too long. War, a chance to finally bring down those having chosen the heavens as their abode.
She had grown bored with the same myths, the same stories, the same threads being repeated again and again in a maddening and endless cycle.
No, Chronos had smiled finally after so long and gave her what she had been longing for for so long, the end of the Olympian order.
She just would have never expected it to end because of a demigod. Her father had grown soft or maybe it was the contrary and his heart had hardened.
It was unfortunate that it took eons for such change to occur. Perhaps had it been the case, he wouldn't have been brought low.
Maybe, the laid-back attitude he had chosen to take those last centuries was a mask, a mask to hide his true feelings or maybe he had gone mad.
Maybe madness, true madness, not the one curated and controlled by the Drunk Olympian and the toy of cupid. Benthesicyme thought of True unfiltered madness.
Even immortals couldn't escape from its grasp. They were endless yet the one true foe this endlessness didn't allow them to escape was madness.
She knew what she was talking about. After all, she had been mad once. Things were better those days but this was the thing with madness, it never truly left. It simmered into your bones and essence, waiting for the perfect moment to resurface.
This madness, it whispered to her, at the back of her mind begging to be unleashed into the world in all its terrifying glory.
Not yet, the goddess thought as her gaze fell on an ensign, one that spelt Lotus Casino. Not yet but soon, oh soon. She had waited for more than a millennium. What were years, months, minutes and seconds if but a breeze?
The daughter of the lord of the sea stepped into a domain, an artificial one, one faulty and that was a mockery of a true one but she guessed she could expect nothing more from the lotus eaters she thought as she took shape, leaving the immaterial plane to become material, moulding her essence to take the shape of a beautiful olive-skinned woman with dark swirling hair with eyes so green they seemed to absorb the light around them and dressed in a green coloured Toga.
She knew there existed faults in her mortal disguise. She was a deity, a perfect existence. How could she perfectly replicate the imperfect? How could she replicate mortality when it was an alien concept to her? The mist would be handling the rest.
Her father had given her a task and she couldn't have refused when he had finally given her what she had yearned for so long.
She knew she was only one of the pieces on the giant play that was this war. She was a tool and tools like her didn't fail their missions.
The husband of her sister had forgotten his place. He had forgotten that he was nothing more but a placeholder.
On one hand, maybe she should thank him. This war was unleashed by his doing. He had been the one to send a kindly one and Pasiphae's spawn against her little brother. He even had captured the young one mother. Wars had been waged for less reasons.
The underworld was his now but it hadn't always been the case. He had forgotten that he ruled not because of prowess or strength but because he was allowed.
He may have surrounded himself with the gods of the abyss believing their twisted support would be enough but Benthesicyme knew that all weren't satisfied.
Her father may not wish for the throne of Erebos but in her veins and the veins of her brethren flowed his ichor.
Chaos was always there at the corner waiting to be released. An attempt in usurpation from her brethren and she would be enough to bring him low and divide the gods of Erebos forevermore
"How may I help yo-" The lotus eater behind the counter choked on her words as she looked at Benthesicyme.
A smile too wide, filled with too many teeth split the face taken by the daughter of the Earth shaker.
"Oh, Yessss," the godly being drawled like a snake. "You can help me."
"Is there something wrong?" a Lobby attendant said behind Benthesicyme.
"I don't know," the goddess said while continuing looking at the receptionist. "Is there one?"
The receptionist had gone white as if she had glimpsed at Typhoon, the one who had brought down Zeus long ago.
"Maam, teleporting in the Lotus Casino is forbidden according to the Article 1382-9. I'll have to ask you to leave," the lotus eater behind her said.
The receptionist shook her head while looking at the lobby attendant so fast that for a moment Benthesicyme wondered if it would stay attached.
It seemed however that he hadn't been able to understand how precariously his existence stood "Maam, I asked you to cooperate and you didn't. I'll have to remove you," the lobby attendant said behind the daughter of the rulers of the sea before trying to touch her.
The hand of the Lotus Eater didn't make contact. Had he not been a foul, had he been more knowledgeable, maybe had he been longer, he would have realized what Benthesicyme was, who Benthesicyme was.
She was called the lady of deep water for a reason. She was the child of Poseidon and Amphitrite and her divine inheritance was the abyss of the oceans.
Humans with time learnt how dangerous her domain was. Her father and her mother may have allowed mortals to thread in the surface of the Ocean but the abyss of Pontus were hers to command the way she saw as fit.
Humans learnt to step in her domain with respect, with fear, with caution. They learnt that only one error would turn their insides out. The lucky amongst them wouldn't even feel anything before she let their souls leave for the Underworld.
A moment, there was, the next there wasn't anything behind her. The Lotus Eater was evaporated as the air around him imploded for a brief instant with the heat of a blue ravenous star not leaving even ashes.
The Ocean was a part of her and she was part of it. Everywhere she stepped, she carried it with her.
It was foolishness to think a child of the sea could truly be isolated from it. The goddess scrunched her nose as she was assaulted with an unpleasant odor. The odor of Urine and feces.
The smile on the face of the goddess shifted into a frown "Really?" she said to the receptionist disgust painted on her face. "I knew Lotus eaters left a lot to desire but it seems my view of your race was more charitable in my head than the reality."
Alarms blared, filling the air with their shrill noises. Doors were closed with magical wards and runes to protect them and hurt anyone wanting to violate them. The godly being could feel a mass of liquids in humanoid shapes coming closer. She suppressed a sigh. It seemed things wouldn't be as quick as she hoped they would.
"It's your fault you know," the goddess said to the receptionist. "You should have just answered and things would have been perfectly fine but it seems my desire to avoid bloodshed was for naught."
The goddess gaze wandered around her. A sea of Lotus-eaters armed with weapons, some even that seemed to have been made by The smith god were brandished toward her.
"Do you know who am I?" the goddess asked. "Do you know against whom you are brandishing your weapons?" the goddess asked, displeasure etched on her face.
One of the Lotus-eaters walked forward. Unlike the others, he had a golden tag which probably meant he was more important than the rest of his brethren.
"We know who you are Daughter of the Earth-shaker and the Nereide, Lady of the deep swells, Queen of the Pacific, supreme General of the Undersea armies, glad o war."
The goddess felt her smile come back. Finally, some recognition! Hopefully, this was just some kind of grand posturing that would only result in them allowing her to achieve more easily her mission.
"We know who you are and what you are here," the Lotus eater spoke.
That was interesting.
She turned to finally gaze fully at him. He had now her full attention, something he would learn to regret.
"A Völur who owed us a favour told us thirty years ago multiple prophecies. One of those prophecies was that A divine enemy would come for the two treasures of the rich ones".
"A Völur? I thought we had slaughtered all those who remained in our realms but it seemed it wasn't the case," the goddess mused out loud as she leaned her head on one palm.
Gods were territorial by nature. More than that, places of jurisdiction could serve as an indirect way to ignite a fading essence, at least for gods of other pantheons.
Greek gods didn't need such things even if they could benefit from it. They were just better.
Völur or norse seers were like their gods, interesting too look but nothing substantial. Völur weren't like Greek seers like Pythia or Dodona or some children of the sun god or her father capable of seeing through the threads of the daughter of Ananke themselves.
Greek oracles saw the what will be when Norse oracles saw the what could be. Not that Greek oracles couldn't see the what could be. It's just it only happened to inexperienced seers and the clear-sighted and their descendants.
"We made a contract with The Lord of the Underworld, a binding contract that required for us to protect his children."
"Please," the goddess scoffed. "You are like Cockroaches. I'm sure that if you wished to, you could have found a way to twist it to your advantage."
Lotus-eaters weren't strong. They weren't great scholars or beings capable of great magic.
They were a step above mundane. What they had that she had to recognize was the fact that they were so inherently proficient with twisting promises, contracts and vows that even Hermes had in the past been tricked by them.
No one loved them. They were hated and they knew this. This is why they continued cheating, lying, twisting facts to amass more power, more favours, more ways to survive. Of course, they weren't dumb enough to anger Gods who would be able to destroy them no matter what they tried, at least it had been the case in the past.
It was almost admirable. This had been how they had survive for thousands of years. Unfortunately for them, they had made three error.
"My father was the one who allowed you go become what you are today. He's the one who allowed you to become the less disgusting beings you are today. Do you truly want to be ungrateful toward my father?" she asked them, her smile widening.
Odysseus had blinded Polyphemus and her father had hated the mortal for it. Even more due to the fact most of the other Olympians worked together to make sure the man would survive her father's wrath.
Her father had known of the involvement of his family and thus had tasked one of his children in this case her to give the Lotus Eaters an offer they couldn't refuse, immortality.
Of course, it would have been foolish to give it all at the Lotus-eaters before they succeeded so they were blessed with the capacity of living around half a Millennium. They would have had a complete immortality if they succeeded in slaying Odysseus.
They failed like the myths indicated but they were able to cause the death of some of the man's companions and make him lose years. This is why their partial immortality hadn't been taken back.
They were insects, beings only living through her mercy, through the mercy of her father and they had never been grateful even though they had failed. They didn't even choose to support Atlantis in this war opposing the seas and the world.
The female goddess only longed for their end, the whispers in the back of her mind instructing her how only one touch would be enough to render them inexistent.
The reason why she hadn't was because she needed their defiance. Benthesicyme was a general and she knew martial prowess was not the whole of a war. Image, perception, they were important even though she didn't truly care for them.
Truly winning meant making the ones you butchered believe they deserved it. This had been an old Lesson Delphin, her old teacher had once taught her in her youth.
"There is war, General. The ocean against the world itself and we know it is only a question of time until your side loses. We will never forget what the Lord of the Seas did for us but we can't let it stop us from thriving. We know we can't beat you but winning against you doesn't mean doing so."
She could understand why the Lotus-eaters thought such. Even if her father was strong enough to win against his younger brother, he shouldn't have been able to battle and win against all the rest of his siblings.
The Queen of The Pacific would have agreed if it wasn't for the fact that Poseidon, her father wasn't alone.
The last time, the only reason he has lost was because he had not been backed by the Ocean.
It was one of the only decisions her insufferable older brother had taken and that she had agreed with.
Pallas hadn't been only been Triton's daughter. she had also been Benthesicyme's granddaughter. Tritonis, Pallas' mother who died birthing her had been one of the two children she had ever brought in existence.
Pallas had been the only remaining from her youngest daughter and Her father had refused her the right the one at cause of Pallas' death. He had refused her from avenging herself and because of the anguish, of the hatred, her mind had broken.
When you were a divine being and you were connected at every level to other gods, grudges became as long-lived if not more than civilizations.
More than that, something was different with her father. She could discern it but it made a part of her believe deep down than even without the support of the seven Oceans, he would win.
"You see," the goddess said as her back left the counter "You made a mistake. You had confused politics, your usual drool backstabbing and squabbling as the same thing as war. The thing with divine Wars, little cockroaches is that logic doesn't old sway in them."
"More than that," she continued as her skin began to crack like a shell, something bulging from under grotesquely moving.
"You made the error of believing tricks could help you survive me."
"Now!" shouted the Lotus eater. The weapons in the arms of the Lotus-eaters moved planting themselves in the ground, a blue light growing and linking each of them around her.
A spatial distortion she recognized, one if her calculations weren't wrong would have sent her in the cosmos, light years away from here.
She had to admit it was ingenious. It would have surely worked against a deity who wasn't her, she thought before rainbow-coloured amorphous-looking thorns exploded from her ribs and the barrier Broke.
The goddess felt delight course through her as she shed her mortal disguise, as horror and realization swept through the eyes of the lotus eaters, as her reason was replaced with madness.
This was the thing with Madness. It was always there. How couldn't it be when madness was proof of sanity in a world that had gone mad?
The world, the fates had been mad enough to take again and again what she held dear. It was only ș̸͓̠̤̐̊̓̓̊́̉̽̋́͐̚͝a̷̡͓͎̪͉͉̹̮͉̦͛̈́̏̒́̔͗́̊͌̕͝n̸̯̻̱͔͂̿̔͛̐̐̀͗̒͘ë̴̲̲̤̟̫̼̖̭̣̼́̆̏̈͊̎̄̕̕̕ ̶̣̤͎̬̄̿͂̈́͋̌͌̾͋̈͛͘t̸̝̦̪̖̜͔̹̯̲͎̙͇̔ḩ̷͔̦̜͔̣͔̯̜̫̻̀͋̔̇̏͝͠ͅa̴̛͓͇̩̘̹̱̒̉͗̐͗̊̏̏͗͂́̀͜t̸̰͙̺͍͉͇͆͑̽͑̄͆̑ͅ ̶̺̀s̶̡̧̛͂̍͗̒͛̀͒͝͠͠h̷̨̨͎̱̥̖̫͕͉̹͙̩̫̮͑͂̍̈̽͆ẻ̴̘̖̥̻̲̦̗̠̮̱̇͐̊͜͠ͅ ̷̨̧̛͚̬͓̝̮͇̙͉̩̱͛͋͊͒̒̒̉̏r̵̛̥̩̩̹̺͖̈́̓̈́͛͑̎̄̋͂̔̈́̚̕ę̵̛̰͇̦̽̏̿̀t̷͔̭͔̱̻͚̺͈͚̰̻͕̟͆͑̔̈́͊̈̓͋͘̕̕͘̚͘͝à̸̡̢̧̦̭̘͇̳͔̳̣̪̠̯͊͗̀̑̏́͜l̶̨̢̦͈̫̥̗̬̲̥̺̳̦̺̈́̿̿̑́̈ǐ̸̢̱̫͖̭̲͎͎́̀̕͠à̶̦͗͂̃̚ţ̴̡̜͇͉̦̙̟̥͖̰͇̰͚͇͂̈́̅̌̅̀͝ê̵̬̦̥̠̻̦̝͙̈̀̓̆̓d̴̡͉̦̰͉̗͋͑̈͑̀̏͐̋̇̌͠ ̶̱̩͛̈́̍̿̎́̈́̔͂̾̓̂͋͐̆ͅś̴̪̼̞̱͖̜͔͕͚̺̠̠̾͐͝ͅh̴̢̡̙̭̞̠͑͆̍̈̿͒͑̉̀͜͝ẻ̵̛̦͐ ̷̦͙̣̳̺̲̟͉͔͓̙̖͎̪͕̆̓t̴̲̖̅̈̀̈́͗̇͗̀̒̋̚̚͝ͅḧ̴̨̡͍̻͔̣͖͕̗̦̗̲̪̈̆̈́̔̊́̊̕ö̵̬̪̹̪̙̲̣̤̰̜̼͊͜ú̷̡̙̬̮̘͔̩̙̞̱͔͊̇̈̇̇̓͌͊͘͝͝ģ̷̧̢̛̠̹̻̮͖͍̟̾̍͊̒̔̈́̒̒͒̍̓͋̚͠h̸͓͚͎͙̞̣̫̩̍̂̓͐͆̅̎̇̀̊́̚͘ͅt̸̛͈͎̊́̎͒̐͌͂̌̚͘͝ ̸̨͚̪̲̜͎̟̳̄̍̃̽̏̏͛͠͝͝͝b̵̝̹̦̙̪̭̗͚͚͙̰̻̃́̄͌̿͆̚͝e̶̜̜̙̳̼͓̫̘̖͍͈̬͈̒́̈́̐͒̑̏̿̓̄͊̋̋̀f̸̛̹̼̣̯̹̘̬͚̥̜̳̫̐̓̈́̈́̌̈́̍͐̔ơ̸̢̨̢̧̧̠͙͖̻̰͙̤̍̓͒̐́͒̕͠r̴̻̱͖̯̦̪̗̅͜͜ę̶͈̟͖̤̳̜͔̇̈́̑̓͠ͅ ̵̥̉̓̆̓̊̏̔̃̐̊́͛͘̚͠ḝ̷͓͇̆͋̈́́̋v̵̛̹͕̥̠̘̲͒̊̾̄̎͛͝e̷̢̤̗̞̤̾̀͠r̷̤͉̱̺͊͗͊y̶̨̪͇͍̯͎̝̣͚̬̫̦̟͎͆̈́t̶̢̮̳̥̫̦͕̰̣̮̼̞͖̰̲́h̶̗͉͙̮̥̦̟̐͌̂̑͘̚͝ͅȉ̶̢̨̧̛̟̜̭̹̼͇̭̺͈̘̽͜n̸͔̤̯͕̆̿͋̉̄͒̀́͝g̷̢̣̥͗́̈́̿̀̍̈́͌̊̄̀̈́̌̚̚͜ ̴͍̬̘̗̭̲̼̜̯͒̈́̋̇̂̓̊̇͛͘̚͝͝͠͝l̶̯̩͍̗̦̘̯̙͇̉̃̈́͒́́̀̚͝o̷̯͔̤̯̻̼̘͚̖͙͐̿͑̒̉̏͐̄̽͠͝ş̷̢̲̟̞̤̫̥̪͙̬͍͔̻̀̀̈́̇̄͛ͅt̸̮̗̫̮̖̥͚͇̞̏̑̉̌̓̅͋͠ ̵̨͈̞͙͐͒͜ṃ̷͖̈́͐͗͐̀̒̍̍̃̓̚̕̚ȩ̵̨̧̼̮̫̜̹̟̞̟̯͇̳̗̑̅́̆͌̀̎̐͋͗̃̈̕͝a̶̦̙͖̥̣̤̎n̶̨̛̦̲͉̲̖̏̋̇̃̈̂͛̈̒̀̚į̸̛̭̜̥͔̓͗̆̅̈̄̆͆͜͠͝ń̶͎̤̘̝͕̟̹͓͕͊̏̽͌̄͆́̌̋ǵ̴̨̲̟͈̥̞̆͌̔̋͗́̿̾̌.
scene*
Bianca Di Angelo had always known that things would go wrong. It was a feeling she had since her birth, a dreadful feeling that unfortunately was only proved each time true.
The beginning of the second great war, the way the shadows seemed to whisper to her, the way her mom died before her eyes in a way that shouldn't be possible, the way their father was gone, the way it was only her and Nico left. It had been months since the last time she had seen him.
Even today she couldn't remember clearly how things had gone wrong so quickly. She couldn't even exactly remember what had happened.
However, she knew She had to acknowledge the fact that things could have been worse. Even though she had stopped seeing him since her mother's death, the man had continued even indirectly to take care of them. The one thing she couldn't reproach her father was the fact they never lacked anything when it came to material comfort.
She just wished he was still there like before everything went wrong. She wished he would hug her again with his arms that seemed to able to hold the world in their grasp.
She wished she wasn't the one who had to take care of Nico, of Nico and her just by herself.
She loved her brother, more than life but she was getting tired of loving him more than she loved herself.
She was also a kid! She wasn't Nico's mother! She was his sister. What scared her was the fact that he had shared with her that he was forgetting more and more what their mother looked like. What scared her was the fact that she had heard him say her name before saying Mom while he was sleeping.
Bianca knew what happened to Orphans especially in wartime. No one took care of them and they suffered, some of them indescribable horrors no children should ever experience.
She didn't want to imagine what could have happened to her, to Nico, what they would have to do to survive if it was only the two of them.
They were just supposed to wait a while in the Lotus Casino before their father took them back. This is what she had been told.
She should have expected things wouldn't end the way she had wished they would. The casino had been attacked. It seemed even in Washington, they hadn't been able to escape the war.
It reminded her of the way her mother had died, how one instant, everything had been fine and the next one, it hadn't been, how one moment her mother had taken them in her arms and the next one, she was being told by one of her father's associate that she would be moving to the United States.
They had been in their room. For once Nico hadn't been his usual overactive self and she had been able to breathe for once.
This was after thinking such that the walls had shone before exploding. She remembered pain and losing consciousness before waking up under rubble, the stiff body of her brother with a leg sticking at an unnatural angle in her gaze.
There was a woman standing near her brother and her senses only screamed dangerous looking at her. The woman had long dark curls, green eyes and a face she knew most women would be jealous of. There was even a little smile at the corner of her mouth yet she scared Bianca. If was as if she was in the presence of a predator.
The gaze of the woman met hers and her smile widened "Hi little girl. I am your cousin and I am here for your brother and you."
According to the Myths, Benthesicyme was a nymph-goddess, daughter of Poseidon and Amphitrite. She ruled over 'Ethiopia' (ancient greeks meant by that all of Africa) and was married to Enalos or Emoulpos, son of Poseidon and Khione with whom she would have two children. Tritonis, Pallas' mother is one of them which means Trition married his niece, something showing he is a Greek god related to Zeus. The genealogy tree of most Greek gods are more pretzel-shaped than anything else. It also means that wronging one immortal being could mean wronging all of them. No one in the oceans like Zeus and his rule, no one. Etymologically, Bentesicyme can mean lady of deep swells. This is why I gave her power pertaining to the depths of the Ocean. More than that, her inheriting the depths of the Ocean, the place where Pontus's consciousness rests, where normal sea creatures look more like Lovecraft creatures than anything else came from her mother which is why she isn't we would say perfectly sane. Anyway, hope you like this chapter. Don't hesitate to comment, tell me what you like or dislike, point errors if there is because I wrote this in less than three hours. Also if you want to support me or read more of my works, I got a (
p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / Eileen715).