Uncles

I looked at Zeus, Hestia, and Poseidon with a bewildered expression, and I was not the only one looking at them with bewilderment. Like me, Hades and Demeter looked at the trio with shocked expressions. We were flabbergasted by what we had just witnessed.

" Why did you kill her?" Hades asked through gritted teeth. He had no connection to her, but it was very clear he did not condone senseless killing.

Zeus was silent for some time as he looked down at the woman's lifeless body without any emotion, " She was loyal to father and only he. Many call her Kampē. She was the only guard of the underworld, Tartarus. This speaks volumes about her strength. We could not have overpowered her by conventional means; we had to trick her. We had to spark and utilise her feminine nature so that we could overpower her. After all, women are weak to weak things."

A deafening silence overwhelmed us. Hades, Demeter, and I could not conform to this method of attaining victory. I took a step away from Zeus in a subtle manner. I thought we were only going to slay our father. Did we really have to kill the innocents associated with father? Were we to become merciless executioners so as to get rid of our father?

Zeus glanced at me briefly , then turned to walk through the golden gate, which was now wide open. Seeing his departing figure, I felt a tinge of guilt for my previous action. His back muscles were rigid as he took long and powerful strides away.

We all followed him through the gate. As we passed the gate, we transitioned from a tunnel emitting a cyan hue to a tunnel emitting a scarlet hue. The stones in the wall pulsed an ominous red colour, bringing an unsettling feeling into my heart.

As we continued to trek down the tunnel. We finally arrived at a large, ornately decorated obsidian door that was covered with chains and locks that denied accessibility through the door. Zeus was not perturbed by the chained door, and continued to move forward. With a swipe of his hand, the chains fell onto the hard ground, making loud clattering sounds. Once the chains were down, the door swung open.

I was slightly shocked by what I had just witnessed. If he could have done that from the very beginning , Kampē would not need to have been killed. This silent realisation rocked me into a deeper level of shock. It seemed I was not the only one frozen with shock because, as Zeus moved to open the door, nobody moved.

Sensing this hesitation, Zeus turned around and asked, "What is the matter? Let us continue. Our uncles are just past this door." Zeus inquired.

There was a brief silence.

" What did you just do?" Hestia answered with a question of her own.

Well, that was not why I was shocked, but I guess it would do as an opening question. Zeus paused as he considered how to best answer her.

" Hmm...how do I explain it. All of us are not limited by any creation that is made by hand, unless it is of a special kind. We also all have the ability to control certain natural elements in nature. I think it is a privilege we share because we are grandchildren of the all mother Gia and the children of the great titans Rhea and Kronos."

His revelation was met with another shocked silence, but this time it was a tense one. An unnaturally forced smile appeared on Hades' face as he stepped forward to speak to Zeus.

" If that is the case, was it truly necessary to kill Kampē? We could have just incapacitated her with these gifts you allege we all possess."

Zeus shook his head. " There was a reason she was the sole guard for all the prisoners in Tartarus. She was not only strong but also immune to any manipulation by others. Just as we are immune to any manipulation from each other. We are only affected by natural elements and exceedingly strong weapons."

The information was a lot to take in, but it was good to know we could not be hurt easily. Without further hesitation, Zeus spun around and strode past the obsidian doors. It seemed that he did not want to answer any more questions. After all, we needed to hurry and accomplish our goal of coming to the underworld.

With the receding figure of Zeus before us. Poseidon was the first to take the initiative to follow him. Prompted by Position's actions, my siblings followed suit. I was the last to follow the pack, as I needed some time to steel my resolve even further and push any guilt I felt for Kampē's death to the depths of my mind.

As we passed through the doors, we beheld an enormous cave-like room that had obviously been dug from the tunnel. A portion of the cave-like room was lit, leaving the rest of the room in complete darkness. The ceiling, which was metres away, had sharp, pointed rocks that hung dangerously. The walls consisted of jagged and uneven rocks. It was a very interesting room.

Suddenly, we heard a clatter of chains coming from the darkness. Everyone turned in the direction of the noise, but no one had an alarmed face. It seemed that, like me, my siblings had already steeled their own resolves.

Making use of the information that we had just learned recently , I snapped my figures and imagined two balls of light beside me. The balls of light appeared and started oscillating around me. I willed them to move in the direction of the sound. They moved, and we all beheld gigantic figures chained to the jagged stone wall.

The figures we saw varied in shape and size. However, the majority were single eyed creatures, which gave all six of us pointed looks of varying emotions. Some looked at us with malice, others looked at us with curiosity, while others had no emotions on their faces.

In the deeper depths, I was able to faintly see three blurry figures. I was shocked to see more than three heads on each of the three bodies, and the arms on each body far exceeded the normal number of arms. Despite being shocked by the hazy and nightmarish figures, which I could barely perceive, I knew they were scary creatures. I did not let any emotion show on my face. I just turned my attention to the gigantic one-eyed cretures that were completely visible to me.

Zeus stepped forward fearlessly and spoke whilst maintaining eye contact with the creatures, " These are our uncles. They are cyclopses."