3 The Stomach of Cronos (I)

It seemed quite obvious, but living inside a stomach was not a good thing. Adrian or rather Hades (He was still getting used to his new name), thought as he sighed at his new situation. He didn't remember much, but what he remembered to know where he was. If hearing the name 'Rhea' wasn't enough of a sign getting swallowed by what he assumed was a Titan was. The name his new mother gave him was also one of the signs that made him accept his new reality.

He was reborn as Hades, Greek God of the Dead and ruler of the Underworld, and while being an immortal nigh-invincible being - to normal beings anyway - might sound like a good deal, it lost its appeal very quickly if you know a thing or two about Greek Mythology. Greek Mythology is a nightmare, superpowered manchildren toying with the lives of both mortals and immortals daily. This is why he considered the decision of the original Hades to stay away from that pit of madness as a wise one.

Hades shook his head clearing his thoughts, if he remembered correctly eventually he would be freed by Zeus and the conflict known as the Titanomachy would begin, the newly titled Gods would battle the Titans for control of the world, the gods would win and the world (Or at least Greece) would be theirs to do what they want.

But it would take time for that to happen, so he decided to prepare himself for the coming conflict. He tried using his powers and found that he could control and create shadows or darkness, manipulate dark energy, turn himself invisible, and finally control and creation of both ice and fire alongside heat and cold. So he had quite the arsenal available to him, and this was all that the original Hades had, before claiming his divine weapon and domain, which he guessed was something important.

A domain is usually something quite big in the stories he used to read in his past life, Gods embody their domain and their realm usually reflects that Zeus is the thunder god so his realm is the heavens, Poseidon can control water so his realm is the oceans of the world, and so on.

He had also discovered that his form is not his 'true form' so to speak, his true form is more like a purple-red mass of divine energy, the form that he took was just how his Olympian self was meant to look like and not kill mortals in his presence, as one of the myths of the Birth of Dionysius said one of Zeus lovers asked him to show his true form by making him swear by the River Styx, Zeus showed her his true form which reduced the mortal woman to ashes.

He also noticed some strange things happening, you see sometimes in the shadows he found food and clean water, which he guessed could be the famed Ambrosia and Nectar that the Greek Gods ate and drunk, while he couldn't die from hunger or thirst he could still feel both, and eating or drinking the things Cronos digested was too disgusting for him to do, so he ate the Ambrosia and gulped down the Nectar. Hades had to admit that it was the food and drink of the gods, nothing in his past life tasted like what he just ate and drunk, it was like he was tasting all the good things he had tasted in his previous life but amplified a million times.

He didn't know who was it that sent them, but seeing that they appeared from the shadows, it was very likely it was either Nyx or Erebus perhaps even both of them, their relationship between them and Hades was never actually fully explained, sometimes they were merely coworkers, in others, Hades was their adopted son in all but name.

But he supposed he had to thank them for the food.

'Wait didn't the light god say that he removed my limiters' Hades thought remembering the words of the being that sent him here 'Okay so he said that I could potentially learn anything, but I don't know how exactly that works' Hades knew that he could learn many things which could make him stronger but he didn't know much what he could learn.

He ultimately resolved to deal with that later.

~~~~~~~~

A red bundle fell through the throat of Cronos, Hades quickly grabbed it using tendrils shaped from the shadows of his father's stomach. The tendrils gently brought the bundle to him. Hades saw a tiny baby girl, she had a patch of red hair and amber eyes much like his own. And if the name who had been stitched in her bundle didn't show who she was then her physical appearance would.

"Hello Hestia," He said to the future Goddess of the Hearth, who giggled and reached out with her tiny hands to grab him. Well at least he first got the normal sibling, by himself it will be hell when the others arrive.

"Now let's get you some food"