King of The Underworld (I)

The Underworld was silent, there were no moans of souls that wandered usually across its' expanse, nor the shrieks of monsters of Tartarus, the realm of the dead was silent for the first time in a long time. For their gaze was drawn towards a newcomer, one that came nearly a decade ago, Hades had returned to the Underworld.

Hades was walking, he didn't know where he was going, but the connection he felt towards the Underworld was telling him where he should go. The same connection that was growing stronger and stronger each time step he took towards the direction the realm guided him to.

He felt the gazes of the multitude of shades, but he didn't fear them, they would all become his subjects, it didn't matter if they were sinners or saints, to Hades these souls who wandered the realm for who knows how many years, are all the same. He doesn't know their history or how they lived and so they are mere strangers to him no matter how many sins or virtuous acts they did in life.

In the end, they were simply the faceless masses of humanity personified.

Hades reached his destination, in front of him was a relatively simple marble throne, it seemed to have been made with simplicity in mind, there were symbols or anything like just simple gray objects.

Hades didn't know how but he felt that the only reason the throne had this simplicity was that it never had the chance of being anything more than it originally was.

Hades knew what he must do, he went towards the throne and sat in it. Instantly his mind was assaulted by information, all the information that the Underworld wanted to give to him was forced into his mind. Hades saw the creation of the Underworld, by the hands of multiple Old Ones, he saw the sheer number of souls being sent into it, he saw the multiple times the creators came and went, an eternal cycle that seemed to always repeat itself.

For Hades was not the first ruler of the Underworld, there were three others each mightier than he currently was but they were all eventually destroyed, their essence never to return to the mortal and divine world, Hades was simply the fourth King. But he wasn't simply that, different from them, he could survive the cull that would herald the fifth iteration if he had the strength of will to reach that goal.

Hades gasped, his mind nearly collapsing as he understood the sheer scale of the things that the Underworld showed him. He chuckled, he thought he was something, that Zeus, Kratos, and the others were something greater, but in the end, they were all so small. In the end, even them would be swept by forces higher than even them.

But not him, he could survive that force, and maybe even save some others if he felt like it. Hades looked at the shades, they could never survive such calamity, the first King could bend the entire universe to his will and even he fell in the end, to a force of unimaginable power, though he didn't know what that force was, for even the Underworld had forgotten what it was.

'Or it had been changed to forget' Hades thought while shaking his head 'It doesn't matter, even if I could change that, it would take time for I reach that level of power, millions of years perhaps'

The Underworld had shown how large it was, it was essentially infinite in size, every time a soul entered it would expand, and since the Underworld had millions of souls some of which belonged to previous ages of human evolution, he would never have to worry about space.

He knew of the exact quantity of souls in all corners of the Underworld. He could see every little corner of it, even the deepest parts of Tartarus, where he saw the chained Titans, which he ignored, for now, he would deal with them later.

{I see that you now know} A voice that came from the shadows said, it was both proud and sad.

"Erebus" Hades correctly guessed "You knew didn't you?"

{I did, alongside the majority of my siblings,}

"Are you... a survivor of the previous iterations?"

{No} Erebus answer shocked the King of The Underworld {Compared to those ancients I am both young and weak}

Hades didn't want to believe it, but Erebus had no reason to lie, the Protegenoi of the Darkness that composed the dark areas of the universe was old and powerful, but only when compared to beings like them. The ancients were mightier than all of them and would outlast and defeat even entropy in the end.

They were Universal gods that cared only for a few and didn't even look at the myriad of mortal races that dotted the ever-expanding universe, for comparison to them they were simple bacteria and nothing more. And to be fair they weren't particularly wrong.

{Now that you know of that, what are you going do?}

"Survive" That was Hades' answer, he would survive the end of the Fourth Iteration of gods, he would gather power and followers that would see him survive the end in some type of form. He would live and nothing would stop him.

But first, he must make changes to the Underworld, if it was going to be his base of operations then at least it must be grandiose enough for the (hopefully) Ultimate Survivor.

He summoned both the Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires and started talking to them about how he wanted his home to be built, while at the same time expanding his consciousness across the Underworld ready to make some changes.