Chapter 8

Charon was a psychopomp, the ferryman of Hades, the Greek underworld. He carries the souls of those who have been given funeral rites across the rivers Acheron and Styx, which separate the worlds of the living and the dead.

The dead who could not pay the fee, and those who had received no funeral rites, had to wander the near shores of the Styx for one hundred years before they were allowed to cross the river.

The fee truly annoys me. Why is Hades so greedy? Of course, it was Charon who collected the money, but it was obviously under Hades' orders.

Hades is no fool, his ferryman would not tax people for so long without his knowledge. I asked myself why all this though.

The dead did not even pay with real coins as only their souls could pass to the afterlife, so these coins were only a projection of the coins that were ritually buried with the dead.

Not wanting to waste time, I paid Charon the appropriate fee.

"Please guide this soul to the afterlife."

"This is?"

"A goddess, yes. But her body is damaged beyond recovery. Only the afterlife is left to her. Even her soul is damaged."

"Poor thing."

"Yes."

I accompanied my granddaughter on her journey to the afterlife where she would be judged and hopefully sent to a better life. I started to use my power to hell her soul. Finally, she fully regained consciousness:

" Uh. Grandma?"

"Yes, it is me, Gaia. You may be a bit lost in this situation.

When I sensed that you did not die I took you out of Zeus' stomach, that weak form you took was practically destroyed by Zeus' stomach beyond recovery. I am taking you to the afterlife."

"Thank you, Grandma, but what about him?"

There was a much weaker soul, glued with Metis one.

"Him?" I pretended to be a fool and asked with doubt.

"This small one took all that pain with me, he was younger than his sister and too weak for him to be properly born. Might poor child soul might disperse even before we reach the underworld! My child could never experience the word and even be born. Why was I such a fool to trust that man." Metis began to cry. I truly pitted her.

" If you want I can adopt this child. I can let him be born from my womb." I proposed to her. I may have a cunning side, but I am not my shitty son Cronus to take a child away from a poor mother.

"Would you do this for me, Grandma?"

"Yes, it would be my honor."

"Thank you, grandma."

Metis sadly gave goodbye to her unborn and unnamed son, while she went for her new life. I returned from the underworld with a life in my womb fated to overthrow Zeus.

(Omncient's POV)

Briareus, also known as Aegaeon, was a giant who had 100 arms and 50 heads.

He overheard the arguments and came to help Zeus.

He was able to untie the knots that the gods had tied when binding Zeus to the throne.

Once Zeus was free, he grabbed his iconic weapon, the thunderbolt, and threatened to strike down the gods who had bound him. Zeus pretended to have recovered his previous strength as no one had seen him being freed, so the less cunning gods thought he could overpower these chains that could bind a god-king.

With his authoritative aura of a king, he deceived the more foolish ones before his daughter Athena could enlighten them about his real situation.

Little did Zeus know, but after being cursed by Ouranos II, Athena had lost her ability to know about the sky, so even she could not tell about his little ploy.

As he was no longer a God King, his lighting weapon would barely be able to scratch them, but most did not know it.

The gods begged for their lives. Poseidon got tired of this republic game and complied with his brother's facade.

As punishment for her attempt to overthrow him, Zeus seized Hera and hung her in the sky by the same chains that bound him. Hera wailed in pain all night, but no one would help her out of fear of Zeus.

After getting no sleep that night, Zeus approached Hera the next morning and agreed to take her down off the chains if she promised that she would never go against him.

Poseidon and Apollo were sent to build the walls of Troy as a punishment.

Poseidon whispers to Zeus in his ear:

"She does not know."

Zeus, trembling and knowing that Athena would not be a threat and see through his ploy decided to give her the same punishment as Apollo and Poseidon.

Zeus without a better choice would deepen his connection with the Olympus dimension, to try to replicate his former glorious power.

As the justice that even the gods could not avoid, even if all was an illusion built upon lies, he would make them true.

With Olympus as a base, he made himself a pseudo-god-king with his justice divinity as a base, even if this divinity had become weaker since Gaia had sneakily taken Metis out of him. The process was only possible because he was once a true god-king.

Zeus hoped that someday he could regain his strength. He was now the weakest of his brothers.

Even if he already took an elderly maturity long ago to great a fake idea of seniority and sage wisdom compared to his older brother's newer appearance; one could see that this appearance of his has aged even more, appearing with a weakened old man.

While Apollo was away, Zeus would give Aegaeon his seat on the Olympus council. When gods asked him why, he would ignore them with his typical arrogance. The previous Sun god had to return to his old duty, while Apollo was away, as Aegaeon had no affinity to the son.

One may wonder how Zeus could make up a performance worthy of a god of mischief and succeed, it could only be said that fate was on his side.

(Gaia's POV)

I asked myself how should I name, this child. After long thought, I decided to call him Typhon. He would pass a long time in his womb.