Crete

(Poseidon POV)

I look around the giant hall and immediately use pools of inspiration to get knowledge about the people present. Their characters, powers and how to defeat them. My gaze travels from the first tall man, Atlas to the next ones and so on and so forth, until it lands on the man in the centre, my father Kronos. He is the strongest of all the Titans and his divinity of time makes him the hardest to deal with but his way of fighting with the scythe and his abilities enter my mind. 

"Brothers and sisters! I am Zeus, your youngest brother. I came here to save you! Let's go, we need to flee!", a young man with lightning-blue eyes and an explosive physique tells us. 

So finally I also looked at him and gathered all the information I could want. He will be a problem in the future it would seem and I have to be ready for anything he can dish out. But for now, Kronos is our greatest obstacle as he is without a doubt the strongest Titan and god present. I can't defeat him yet. I will have to grow more powerful that's what my inspiration tells me. But surprisingly my divinities are more potent, meaning higher quality and quantity than him. But his raw power is still somewhat greater. 

"*cough cough* CATCH THEM!", Kronos shouts and wakes all of his brothers from their stupor. 

They start to rush towards us but my siblings are already running away. I look at the approaching bolder of a man, Atlas. The Titan of strength and endurance. I can feel his physical strength by the vibrations his body releases through the ground and air. I feel his fist shoot towards my face with enough force to level hundreds of mountains ... he is underestimating me. 

His fist impacts my face.

*bom ...*

"Huh?"

"Let me show you how it's done", I say and swing my left fist in a wide arc into his side.

*CRAAACKK*

The air and his body crack like glass. The vibrations of his punch were absorbed by me completely. Then I used them, added my own and smashed my fist into his side, breaking him completely. A moment later, blood shoots out of his body from thousands of small wounds and he vomits a waterfall of blood. 

"Well, that was fun. Todaloo motherf-"

I disappear as I turn my body into water particles and allow myself to be carried away by the wind. 

.

I follow the trail of my siblings and arrive at the island of Crete. It is a lovely island but what catches my attention is the ocean surrounding the island. It is calling me and I feel a great longing to dive into it. But for now, I have to at least show myself and prove I'm still alive. 

I land on the ground and see a few people there. I repeat what I did before and gather intel and vital information on weaknesses and ways to defeat them. I noticed a healthy paranoia in me. I don't trust any of them for some reason. I know all about them, so this does make sense somewhat, but they didn't do it yet. This should be looked at later on, but now I just want to go and meet with the ocean. 

I saw Rhea my mother and how she was crying and hugging all of my siblings. She seemed genuinely happy from what I could gather. They were talking about something when I arrived. Apart from Mother, there were two other ladies present. One was a goat woman, Amalthea who was a ... goat? She was the one who provided Zeus with milk when he was an infant. And finally, we have Metis. I use my pool of inspiration on her.

Metis is a Titaness and the goddess of wisdom, prudence, and deep thought. She is often depicted as a figure of great intelligence and strategic prowess. Interesting. This will be important in the war to come.

Metis is the daughter of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, making her one of the Oceanids, a group of sea nymphs. She is rather powerful, but not even noteworthy when compared to us siblings. She does most of her fighting mentally though, so she is dangerous and I can see both hope and ambition in her eyes. She has a romantic relationship with Zeus, if I see that right. Poor thing.

Defeating her will be either easy or slightly less easy. If I wanted to defeat her now, I would have to go through Zeus as he is hot and bothered and wants to stick it in the oceanid. So he would protect her. If I were to wait though, she would surely get eaten by Zeus, if things aren't stopped. So that's that. I guess, I'll leave her to her devices and use her for the war.

.

"My baby boy!!", I hear Mother shout and run towards me. In a heartbeat, she has me in her embrace and plants kisses all over my face. I can't blame her ... I'm ravishingly hot. Although that might sound weird as she is my mother, but its really not. I mean Rhea married her brother so, there is no such thing as incest. Morals are different if you're a god. 

"I missed you so much, my child. How nice that I finally have all of my children together."

"Sure."

I push her away slightly and she stops hugging me. Sheesh woman, it's not like I know her or anything. I understand a quick hug sure, but that's just too much. Thankfully she doesn't make a scene or anything. 

"My children the situation is dire. Kronos is looking all over for you and wants to capture you again. You need to be ready when the time comes to fight him. Metis is going to help you with it, she is very smart.", Rhea says. 

"Indeed. My father Oceanus has been tasked with finding all of us here and is going around the world in search of you. I am unsure of my father's true intentions but right now it stands to reason that he will capture you and send you to Kronos. We are lucky to have been given an idea from Lady Gaia.", Metis says. 

After she says that the wind changes slightly and a fresh fragrant breeze is felt on my skin. The air changes and I feel power coming from all around me. And then a woman appears in front of us. She is different from us siblings and also from the Titans. She is much more powerful and ancient. 

I immediately used a pool of inspiration to gain information on her, like I had done many times by now. As soon as I do that, the woman turns her head rapidly and looks at me. Our eyes lock and I feel a connection with her. Gaia ... mother Earth, Primordial of Earth and my grandmother. I gain more and more information about her and she slowly walks closer to me as I do. My body doesn't get tense as it should instead I just observe her. Unlike with all the others I used a pool of inspiration on, it goes very slowly with Gaia but the reason for that is obvious. She is a primordial and has tremendous power to hide herself and her secrets. But nothing works against my pools it seems. 

She arrives in front of me and smiles gently. She cups my cheek with her hand and looks at me closely. 

"You are a special one, aren't you ... Poseidon?", she says and then moves away again to address all of us.

"In order to defeat my son Kronos, you will have to get yourselves weapons to fight him. For this reason, you will have to travel to Tartarus and free my children the Hecantochires and the Cyclops from the prison, Kronos put them in. If you do that, you will get your weapons forged.", Gaia says and looks at Zeus, Hades and especially me.

"Tartarus?! How would we get in there and why would we do that? It's too dangerous.", Zeus says. 

At the end of the day, Zeus is a pussy that much I found out. If he weren't backed by Fate and had such tremendous power, he wouldn't have been King of Olympus for long. He was not a good king and everyone knew of his deeds. He was a tyrant and ruled by fear first and foremost. But what does it need to change this fate? What would be necessary to face Zeus? 

Was it power? More power than he had? 

Not really, after all, Kronos had more power than Zeus and yet the Olympians still won in the end. Something that should have been impossible. No, if you wanted to do something about Zeus you would have to challenge Fate directly. Because they could simply give him a boost at the right moment should he need it. 

Could I do that? Could I challenge Zeus and Fate at the same time and protect those who are close to me? 

That goes without question. It will happen ... and soon. 

.

Gaia didn't say anything else and only looked at me for a while before leaving. She was a strange woman who did things she thought were right. The games she played were in a higher league than what we were used to since she knew the hierarchy of the universe. But that is not important to me right now. I will cross that bridge when I get there. 

No matter what happens in this life, I will strive to enjoy myself and create bonds with people. Not just fleeting bonds but real ones. I understand that morality and normalcy are now different than they were before, but I will try to be a capable god and not a degenerate. 

So the expedition into Tartarus was arranged and it was decided that Zeus, Hades and I would go down to Tartarus and free the Hecantochires and Cyclops. But before that, I wanted to finally see and connect with the ocean. It was calling me and I couldn't stay away any longer. 

I moved towards the beach and saw it before me. Beautiful. 

"It's beautiful isn't it?", Hera says who stood beside me suddenly. I was so immersed that I did't feel her approach. She looked lovely with her red hair and golden armour. I don't know where she got that from. 

[Picture]

"What's with the armour?", I ask her. 

"Metis thought we should get familiar with it. Zeus agreed with her. As usual."

"You don't like Metis?"

"Not particularly. She thinks she is the smartest of us and gives out commands. It gets on my nerves.", she says. 

"Haha, and it has nothing to do with her relationship with Zeus?", I ask her.

"No! ... It doesn't."

"If you say so.", I say and walk towards the ocean. 

When my feet touch the water, I feel a rush of energy unlike any I have ever felt, flow into me. I immediately use another pool of inspiration to find out what this is and why it feels so invigorating and ... healthy. 

 ...

Life Force!

This is the Life Force, one of the 7 fundamental forces of the universe. 

The Life Force represents quasiversal Harmonious Uniformity and is part of the cosmic force that allows life to flourish, interconnecting every living being down to their very souls. It is wielded by those like Aquaman or Poseidon who are connected to the nurturing oceans, the font of all life. Those touched by this force, whether it be through an object or through the energy itself, retain a connection to all life and can communicate in a telepathic manner.

And this is what is happening to me right at this moment. Information, knowledge, connections ... it all is pouring into my mind, body and soul. I use all of my pools of inspiration to pull the Life Force in, process it and then integrate it with my powers. 

I want to make this power my own. There is nigh limitless potential with this. I know why I felt so connected to Gaia and why Hades felt like my opposite in a way. He is not the god of death, but rather the dead and the Underworld so that's why we aren't complete opposites.

The energy continues to flow into me and I feel how I grow stronger through it. It is not a physical change but rather a spiritual and mental one. But my body starts to change as well. The vessel has to change in order to contain the power within. 

I don't know how long this will take or what will happen at the end of it, but I will use this time wisely. Let's see how powerful I can get.