Live And Let Live 1 (Kronos SI PJO/DXD)

What was time?

Many who try to answer this question will simply tell you that it is a tangible amount that can be calculated by how many times our world revolves around the sun. To others, it is more than that. Time could be the beginning and the end, with the concept simply being the countdown between each one.

To me, time was something else; it was what defined my being, as I could see endless possibilities before me. Each branch leads to hundreds of various timelines, with the many leaves being the possibilities. It kind of reminded me of the imaginary tree from the Honkaiverse.

I will be the first to admit that when I saw it, I was enraptured by the complexity in the beauty of time, yet even now, I only scratch the surface. I can only view the possibilities but not affect them in any way. It's like clairvoyance in that way.

Before I could study it further, I was pulled away by a tap on my shoulder. I saw my sister Rhea looking at me with concern on her face.

"Are you with us, brother?" Rhea asks. I see her emerald eyes look at me in worry, and I simply nod my head and smile at her, causing her to blush, which brings up a rather interesting dilemma for me.

Do I smash?

This is an age-old question but one that I ask myself in this scenario because if I do commit to Alabama, I know what will happen even though her looking like a hentai version of Rhea from Fire Emblem did not help. 

But I resist such temptation, knowing what would come after. The Olympians will be born, and they shall seek war with the Titans to take our place. 

Even in the timelines where Kronos or I willingly gave up our power and ceded the throne, the other titans will refuse to be under upstart gods and goddesses.

The war would be inevitable, as even if the other titans agreed to give up their roles, it would only lead to their slow death as they fade away.

 Because that is the weakness of the Titans, as unlike the gods who would seek worship, we gain power through fulfilling our domains. And if we were ever to stop, we would begin to lose strength and then fade away.

Every timeline I see, and every possibility I test ends the same. But maybe I am looking at this incorrectly.

Another tap on the shoulder, as Rhea would say, " You're doing it again."

"Doing what, Sister Rhea?" My expression remained unchanged so as not to worry her.

"Viewing the timelines. It's been obvious since the death of our father. You are afraid of the future."

Taking a deep breath, I stand from my throne atop Mount Orthrys and walk over to a nearby balcony as Rhea follows closely behind me.

"You are right, sister. I can't see a timeline where this lasts." I gesture out to the peaceful lands before us.

"You have yet to tell me why such a fate occurs. So what could happen that could bring all of this to ruin?" Her question rings through the halls of the castle created by the three Cyclopses, and I place my hands against the railings.

I never sent those three to Tartarus, so Gaea was kept happy seeing all her children free and living their lives peacefully. Thankfully, she could not read my mind as I worried about her sanity should Gaea do so.

Looking at Rhea, my expression was one of solemn acceptance.

"It would be my fault. My choices would end everything. For us titans, at least. When Father cursed me, it made it so that I could never have children or at least a male heir. It has been inscribed upon fate itself that if I were ever to have a male child, they would bring about the end." Rhea was not there when we killed Ouranos, so this was news to her, and as her eyes showed utter shock, I simply smiled to myself.

"It is all right, sister. As long as I do not have any heirs, we need not worry about internal conflict. You need not worry for me. I am content ruling over what we have. I have no need for anything else." This is true because I am mainly busy practicing my domain and delegating decisions between my various brothers and sisters. I truly have no time for romance.

Rhea would simply place a comforting hand upon my shoulder and say to me, " Well, let's get our minds off this for now as I come bearing news. Hyperion has confirmed that Theia is pregnant with three children. He invites you to his home to celebrate. But I must ask if you are going to be able to attend."

Looking away from Rhea for a moment, I considered this choice, but soon enough, I nodded, and Rhea's smile brightened immensely. For a second, I thought I was standing next to the sun, but that one made sense as Helios hadn't been born yet. After a small hug, she teleported away to inform my brother of my attendance.

"Well, now I have to think of a gift for my brother. What could he want other than more gold, as he really likes gold? Maybe that's where Helios gets his gold obsession from. Thoughts for later." I then summoned my scythe and looked at the weapon before me.

Grazing my hand upon the flat end of the weapon, I looked at the golden luster that the blade held as the blood of my father refused to disappear from it. Not since the death of Ymir had a primordial been slain before, and when Gaea called to my father in order to give form to his mind, did we ever actually expect the plan to work?

It was at that moment that I took control, so to speak, as immediately after slaying my father, my consciousness would take root. As my siblings would celebrate the death of the tyrant, I would sit and watch their festivities with a much heavier mind and heart.

Gaea would return to her slumber after expending so much energy to keep Oranos in his physical form so that I may strike the final blow. I could still remember the feeling of his blood upon my body and the feeling of my scythe slicing through his flesh or, in his case, stars, as his entire body was made of stars.

I did make sure to track down each individual piece of my father's body and eliminate them myself, as I did not want that goddess of love to appear in this world. But knowing fate, she may well appear eventually in some other manner. Divines are weird like that.

Although the most difficult part of ruling this Pantheon was trying to keep my siblings from leaving and exploring the world, the pantheons, while young, were still very powerful, especially the Hindus and the Norse. The Shinto have refused all contact with other pantheons, while the Egyptian Pantheon still lies in their Duat.

But it was not the Gods and other divines that brought fear to my mind; it was the discovery of the Dimensional Gap in this world and what lay within it. I saw the dragon of Dreams, and with one look, he simply slapped me back to the real world. I had never felt more afraid in my two lives.

It was humbling and what I needed to get my head on straight. This was DXD, but thousands of years before the Great War and even longer before anything else. The amount of time I had was comforting, to say the least, but I knew I could not be complacent, so I dived into my work and studied my domain over time and harvest.

I had actually received the Harvest domain after killing my father with the scythe as the world acknowledged my act as harvesting the blood and body of my father was enough to gain such a domain.

Letting my energy flow through the weapon, I felt the harvest desire rise. As I cut into the air in front of me, I saw the clouds part before me, and the feeling faded as I de-summoned my scythe. My current level was firmly in high god class, which was essentially high satan class later, but for now, high god was enough.

My siblings were ultimate to low god class, but trying to get them to train is like herding cats. Only Hyperion, my most loyal friend, would indulge me, but unlike me, his increases were too few. I attributed my increased growth rate to whatever I was given before arriving in this world. 

Two vials of something I could never understand were enough to keep me growing stronger and better. But what makes this worse is that I did not know what I was given, so I do not know their effects, so I am wandering in the dark on that as well.

There are so many unknowns and so little time.

Sighing in frustration, I would return to my throne and look through time for a good gift for my brother. Other time-based deities may cry tears of blood for me, using the timestream as a means to catalog gifts while they can barely see past a couple of years in the future.

But what is a god to a titan? I almost chuckled to myself over that small burst of pride, but it was hard to ignore facts after all.

I only hope I can keep everything together.

Essences Used: Primordial God And Blank