Chapter 6 ~ The New Light in the Dark
Ok, so as usual, the chapter is at least 2k. I also decided to speed up the plot a bit, as I think I did a good job on character development and did enough training to the point it won't feel like it's an ass pull when he succeeds at his portal creation.
So let's goooooooooo!
Quite some time later
Here we are, in the depths of the stomach of the sick Titan King of Time, where it stank of acid and other shit, there sat around the fire created by the eldest goddess of the bunch, four beings, going through an incredibly important duty amongst siblings.
Hades, cross legged with his head resting on his hands, which were placed as if he was praying, though he was staring intently at Hestia, who was looking quite bewildered and slightly amused, "color" He spoke to her, with a serious tone.
"I suppose the color brown, it's not as vibrant as the others, but I believe it has its own charms to look into," she spoke calmly back with a soft smile, as well as both Demeter and Hera looked indifferent, or at least Hera attempted to, you can tell by the smallest of crinkle in her nose that she didn't like hestia's color choice but tried to remain polite.
"What is your favorite animal," Hades said right back as he lifted his head up and raised his eyebrow in interest, before narrowing his eyes in mock wariness.
She continued without missing a beat, not reacting to her younger brother's behavior, "perhaps a donkey, I believe I recall that many beings like satyrs and other creatures of similar shape use them to help carry others, a helpful creature."
"Hot or cold?"
"I prefer the warmth as you would imagine".
"Favorite plant?"
"Nothing in particular"
"What about your favorite food?"
"Brother, I hope you do recall I never once got a taste for anything, the only chance we would've had for that is whenever father would eat something, and even then we don't even want to do that as it is already in the acid by then, I'm worried you're going mad," she says amused, with a raised eyebrow to her youngest sibling.
That's right
The most sacred duty between siblings
Wasting time in an attempt to kill it out of boredom
It was at this point a head-shaking Demeter spoke up, "what are you even doing? You have spent the last hour going through these questions with us…again".
"What? Can't a brother try to understand what his sisters are as people and their preferences to things?" I say to her with rolling eyes, making sure to over exaggerate my movements as I raised my hands up in the air,
"Not when you only ever ask the same set of them, even if you do occasionally throw in a few new ones or simply reword the old ones," retorted Hera with a scrunched up nose that was not in any amount hidden to him, how hurtful, was he not worth the effort?
Hades shrugged, it was once again the seventh day, where he would take a break, but once again, he was bored, it been like this for a very long time, and Tartarus yes it was indeed the same questions over and over again, at this point Hestia was only humoring him.
Hades nonchalantly responds back to his youngest sister "And what exactly do you propose? We pretty much talked about anything there is to talk about, it has become boring as shit no-OW!" He hisses when a frowning Hestia slapped upside the head, which he started nursing.
"Hades please watch your language," Hestia said, looking and sounding very much displeased, her orange flames that were her eyes were flickering, which was usually a sign that she was feeling pretty negatively about something, in this case being his tongue, though his other two sisters looked entirely too amused.
"Bah!, there is literally no one but us here, leave my tongue alone woman!" I exclaimed looking at my oldest sister with mock anger, though she did not in any way look affected by my words.
It was then it happened
The entire space of flesh floor and sickly green acid began to move, immediately hades and the other three stood up, his expression gone to neutral, with his sister's expressions looking grim.
It happened nine months ago
Usually there were small movements here and there that indicated when their tormentor was moving, the waste of space's movements being felt at all usually meant he did an act that required swift and or strong said movement.
What he meant by nine months ago was that at some point they felt they were being rocked back and forth countless times, for a while he was confused as hell to what Kronos was trying to accomplish.
…until he was informed by his siblings that that was usually what happened before several months later a sibling showed up in the stomach…
Hades felt sickened to his very core at the thought that he literally felt the bastard and my mother that I had the smallest of memories of going at it, him once more moving like this…only meant one thing.
"Right…I'll be the one to grab them, hopefully before he falls into the acid," hades calmly said before utilizing Omni-lock to eliminate the gravity on him, with all the training he has gone through for these years, he managed to somewhat easily accomplish this as he started floating up.
Flying straight up, he could see just below him the fire that illuminated the area he left, he could vaguely make out the shapes of his siblings, he could also see the waves of stomach acid that were moving from Kronos' rapid movement.
We were aware of the arrival of a new sibling in several months time because of Kronos, which brought up a point that we needed to somehow get the child to safety before he landed into the acid, the acid was already dangerous to Hestia when I just arrived, it would only be worse when the waters are thoroughly soaked in my essence with a newly born god.
So I have spent the last months, perfecting and refining my control over Omni-lock, to make sure I was able to be unrestricted by gravity whenever the time would arrive for me to catch him.
It was not long before he heard the sound of a wailing child coming straight above him, with every passing moment the crying growing louder and louder to his ears, before his newest sibling arrived.
Looking where the babe was, he prepared to catch the child, making sure to see where his sibling would end up and interfere with his flight course to the acidic waters of the stomach.
Making sure to catch the child, while doing a couple of spins to kill off the momentum to not hurt the child, looking down, he could vaguely make out the expression of a sobbing child, though it seemed to have tired himself out with all the screaming.
Seeing the task done, he gently began to fly down to the fireplace to the rest of his siblings, now having a light source he can see that the eyes and cheeks of his new younger brother were puffed up, probably from the crying.
As he landed onto the fleshy platform, Hestia was at my side with the other two closely behind, "you managed to catch him on time?" She asks as she goes to pick him up from my grasp, she looks softly at her new baby sibling.
Hades simply nodded as he crossed his arms, "indeed, I managed to catch him before he got anywhere close to the acid, though I would imagine he was quite frightened at being swallowed,".
Hera looked annoyed however, "another brother? How annoying, as it wasn't enough, I feel the future will be full of migraines,". Hades simply rolled his eyes, it seems Hera was hoping for a younger sister,…or simply his teasing has annoyed her that much to the point the idea of another brother had me as an example.
Hestia on the hand gave Hera a sharp look, "oh hush you, he is just an infant, you shouldn't dismiss him," she told Hera before turning back to the baby, before she raised her hand where she gathered her divine power in her hand.
After a little light show that lasted several seconds, a toga appeared onto the child who was turning in confusion, seemingly not able to understand what was covering his skin.
She sighed, "we will have to wait until he is old enough to speak and tell us his name, hopefully this will happen sooner rather than later,".
Hades knew that this only meant he will have to try harder now, now that he had a younger sibling, and considering the fact dad didn't stop having children after three, there was probably the chance another sibling will turn out sometime in the future.
But that was fine
He had a theory he wanted to try out in the course of the next few months
Ten Years Later
He managed to form a starting point to his wormhole, just a start and incredibly small, it doesn't even lead to anywhere, it was essentially the highway entrance sign with no highway, but it was a start. He had finally managed to figure out how to keep the portal stable, though there was a lot of trial and errors.
Simply put, he had a very small entrance to a wormhole, and had it surrounded by energy in a shape of a sphere, this place was still trying to destabilize his portal alongside the sphere of energy, but the thing is, the sphere wasn't meant to go anywhere, it was simply to try and stop the time aspect of this place from reaching his portal, a sort of barrier, the idea was to create a small Kronos-free area so that his domain wouldn't interfere as much.
It did work, but it was only the beginning, and the stomach was slowly but surely breaking the sphere apart whenever he attempted it, but he finally managed the first several dozen steps, still hundreds of steps still remain, but he was moving, that is what matters.
And at this point, someone jumped onto his back as he was sitting cross legged on the floor, it was a short body, not that small anymore, but is noticeably shorter than his sisters for the moment, before a curious young voice spoke out, "so you finally managed to do it? Took you long enough,".
Sighing, I looked back, and was greeted by Sea Green eyes that were filled with curiosity, he also had short jet black hair. The one who stared back at me was named Poseidon, which we found out as soon as he began to speak, which was like several months later.
"Indeed, the starting point has finally stabilized, it's entirely too small to go into, unless you want only your finger to escape, and I first need to figure out how to make it go a very long distance, preferably to other dimensions," Hades replied looking back at the miniature portal for a glance. Before waving it away alongside the energy sphere and turned back to Poseidon, "and I seriously doubt you came to this side of the platform because of what I have been trying to do for the past decade,".
And then the curiosity was gone and was instead filled with frustration and irritation, "Hera was getting so annoying again, I swear, if I have to go through hearing her talk about how much better her skin complexion is compared to me I'm gonna pull on her hair as hard as I can,".
Hades chuckled, as he stood up with Poseidon still on his back, as he began to walk back to the fireplace, which over the years of living on the flesh platform they have expanded it by quite a bit, "now that will only get her pissed off, which will just have begin screeching, and I know for a fact you don't want any part of it,".
I could almost feel a shiver coming from his younger sibling, "Mother forbid that, ugh," the younger boy groaned, which only made me chuckle more.
It's been a while, many years have passed, and it was quite boring if you were to look at the summary of what we did over it, but there were a couple of good ones in this shitty hellhole.
Flashback
"I spy…with my little eye…somethi-"
"Stomach acid" all three of my sisters said at the same time with dry tones with tired looks on their faces, and even before I could even finish what I was going to say.
"OH COME ON! Let me at least finish saying my words before you destroy me," I exclaimed in mock anger, which apparently caused the 2 year old Poisedon to laugh.
Heave a pawl, oh heave away!
Weigh hey, roll and go!
The anchor's on board and the cable's all stored
To be rollicking randy dandy-oh!
Hades and a seven year old Poseidon sang the sea shanty that the older brother taught out of boredom, arms connected to each shoulder, Hestia was softly smiling though she was only singing it softly while one of her arms is connected to Hades, while his left is on Poseidon.
Demeter and Hera begrudgingly also hooked their hands to each other, Hestia, and Poseidon's, after our constant insistence, though they looked annoyed as all hell, not that they would ever admit that it was entertaining for even the smallest bit of it.
"Brother, why is it that Hera and Demeter can't seem to ever decide what counts as a compliment and what counts as an insult, only Hestia makes any sense to me" asked the annoyed nine year old Poseidon, with Hera glaring at the youngest.
Hades as he sat with crossed legs once more, he had his eyes closed and rubbed his chin as if he had a beard, with one hand under his elbow, "well brother, it is quite simple, each woman has a balance you must achieve, you must get it right or else you will unleash Tartarus on Gaia," Hades nodded slowly in "wisdom".
"Oh, this should be good," said Demeter, as she repositioned herself to face me to listen to what I had to say, and crossed her arms, the other two sisters followed her example, although Hestia had her hands on her lap, with all of them raising an eyebrow at the Eldest Brother, ready to judge.
Hades wrapped a hand around Poseidon's shoulder, "you see brother, if you ever want to form a bond with someone, you must find the balance in that sort of relationship, be it romantic or platonic, but let's go with romantic for now, and woman,"
Hades straightened his back, "a girl likes it when you do things for them, be it a chore or something nice, but not to the point they feel like you don't think they can do anything on their own or feel like you are smothering them,
"A girl loves it when you spent time with them, but not to the point they feel like you don't give them any sort of privacy or they feel like you don't trust them
"But on the other hand, if you don't spend enough time with them, they will feel like you don't treasure them enough, or make an effort to spend time with them, or maybe they would think you doing something behind their backs,
The sisters blinked in astonishment, they expected to hear something stupid and asinine, but this…this actually sounded like good relationship advise to be telling to your siblings if they are ever interes-
"All women naturally like to feel sexy and wanted, but not to the point they feel like you are objectifying them as sex objects for use and to play with their emotion whenever you fancy,".
Immediately they deadpanned, it wasn't really…incorrect, but that was not really needed to be said here.
"Now you see brother, there is a very big balance that must be learned and maintained for a happy relationship, the difference between platonic and romantic, is that while romantic is a deeper bond but at the same time quite fragile that if you break it you will have to spend a lot of time fixing it, on the other hand, platonic relationship isn't as deep, but you are allowed to make errors, as long as it is forgivable,"
Poseidon simply looked at his brother, before playfully dropping his jaw and giving a false look of astonishment and confusion, "Brother,…since when did you become the God of Women, I thought that belonged to Hera!"
Hades simply rolled his eyes and gave a slow laugh, "hardy har har,"
Hades chuckled even louder at the memories he remembered
"Hey!, are you even listening anymore?" Poseidon complained to me as we almost arrived at where Hestia and Hera were at, who were both talking at the fire pit, Hera looking annoyed at Hestia for whatever reason, probably at the subject they were discussing.
This place…was awful, my early years here would dictate that,…but I am also glad that there were four people here to keep me company and create a few, but very good memories, if they wouldn't be here,…I probably would've turned out a lot more unstable and dark.