War VI - End of the War

"Very well then. I can accept that and that is why I am fighting you. So let us use our most powerful ... or at least in your case, the most powerful move and be done with this."

"If that is your wish then so be it child. Prepare yourself."

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Cronos jumped back, creating distance. Leaving Hades standing there by himself. Poseidon was tossed away by Hades and Zeus had stayed before. He wanted to see whether Hades would die here and make it easy for him to take the throne. 

Cronos, a towering figure draped in green-coloured robes, held in his hand the Scythe, a weapon that could cleave through the fabric of time itself as well as kill a god permanently. Hades, only had pants on, leaving his chest and arms bare. 

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The two looked at each other momentarily and then sprung into action.

With a slow and deliberate movement, Cronos swung his Scythe, releasing ripples of temporal distortion that bent and twisted the very reality around him. A maelstrom of centuries and seconds surged toward Hades, threatening to slice his existence in two. Hades could feel the Scythe slicing time itself apart. At that moment it was a weapon outside of time, meaning it skipped the time it took to reach Hades.

Hades focused his power on boundaries. He once again lifted his arm and swung it down leaving a white-translucent-like trace.

Both attacks met and erupted in a blinding burst of power. The concepts of time and boundaries met and for a timeless moment, reality itself hung in the balance. 

The reality around the two shifted and changed. Chronicles of forgotten civilizations rushed around them, while the boundaries of existence contorted and expanded and contracted again. 

As the clash reached its zenith, the very laws of existence trembled. And when it seemed to be the end of this reality, it all changed again. Reality corrected itself and silence returned to the lands.

We could see Hades' arm had descended fully and was pointing to the ground now. Cronos on the other hand still had his narrowed eyes for a moment ... only to then widen them. The world seemed to be split and both parts of his body fell to the ground.

"Huh, that was something. Glad we could do that. Now let me just grab this.", Hades said and grabbed the broken scythe from the ground. He had plans with that and as it so happens, he has a similar weapon inside his inventory curse he wears as a belt. 

Hades was going to combine those two weapons and make them one. He liked the Soul Splitting Katana and wanted to use it. 

Hades turned around and saw the destruction he had caused when he fought against Cronos. It was like a ravine had been created from his attack. When their attacks clashed, Hades could feel the scythe approaching with his boundary sense. But he wasn't able to see it. 

Cronos had effectively sliced time and then clashed against Hades with all the time he had cut with the scythe. That almost created a rift in the space-time continuum but thankfully Hades was able to cut all boundaries that stood before him and 'cut' the attack.

They could have been sent to some random timeline had Hades not overpowered Cronos when he did. That was a surprisingly close call ... for everyone else. And Hades was glad that he got to experience it. 

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"Well then lads, I guess we're done here.", Hades said and was about to make his exit. He didn't get the chance to though as someone arrived at the battlefield. 

The air changed and one could smell that she had arrived. It smelled of the forest and different types of flowers.

Hades turned and saw Gaia standing over Cronos' body. After looking at it for a moment she turned to look at Hades. The look on her face was hard to read, but Hades could see relief as well as some anger.

"You killed him."

"I did."

"Not permanently."

"No."

"... thank you."

"You are welcome."

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After that ... she left. Dissolving into leaves like a Konoha ninja. Truly she was also quite good with her exits.

Zeus walked forward and looked at Cronos' body as well. It seemed I stole his ... thunder, lol. But he seemed disheartened. I was not supposed to kill Cronos by myself. In fact, Cronos was not supposed to die today at all. He was supposed to be imprisoned in Tartarus after being cut into thousands of pieces. 

"It is over. We won!", Zeus said. 

"What are we going to do with him?", Poseidon asked. It seemed like he had already accepted the position of Zeus as the leader of their group. Poseidon looked at Hades.

"What?", Hades asked.

"What do you think we should do?"

Oh, it seems like he was looking at Hades as the leader and not Zeus. That ... changes nothing. He had no interest in Olympus. He was going to rule the Underworld and in comparison to that ... Olympus would look like a children's playground. 

"I don't know. Give him a push, he might fall into the ravine there. Burry him for all I care."

"No. We must make sure he never returns. We shall cut him into thousands of pieces and then seal them in the Tartarus. We must protect our future and that is the safest way. 

While we're at it, we should imprison all the Titans in the Tartarus. Then they wouldn't dare rise against our rule again."

"Pretty bold of you to imprison 'all' the Titans. Well, you do you. It's none of my business.", Hades could see the future problems coming already. He couldn't care less though. F*ck the future problems. He was living in the now and now, he had something better to do than to argue with Zeus.

.

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The war had ended. As soon as it was known that Cronos had been defeated, all the other Titans surrendered and waited for their punishment. It was ironic really. Zeus was not a lenient ruler and they were about to vote for the future ruler of Olympus. 

Everyone was present ... everyone? No not everyone. Someone was missing from this 'grand occasion' and didn't think it was necessary. You can guess who. Olympus was not yet what it would be in the future, but there were already constructions going on. 

Titans were present and other allies were as well. Everyone was waiting to hear what would happen to them or their family members or themselves. 

Poseidon waved his hands to silence the hall. 

"We are here today, to decide the fate of the world as we know it. The war against the Titans has been won and we must decide what to do about our prisoners. And most importantly we will decide how the world will be divided among us."

Zeus looked at everyone in the room and waited. He had talked with Metis in the last few days and was sure that he would have to use this chance to get voted as the ruler of Olympus. 

Hades' absence had an unnerving as well as calming effect on him. He hoped that his brother wouldn't come today. He had twisted the truth of the battle with Cronos a 'little'. So if Hades attended this meeting today and revealed the truth, it would be difficult to convince everyone to vote for him as ruler.

What did Zeus do? Nothing much. He only claimed to have weakened Cronos for hours until Hades came and finally dealt the finishing blow. He made Hades appear as someone who waited in the background and then stole the kill from him. 

"I call for a vote. All those in favour of having me as ruler of Olympus, put your hands up."

Quite a few hands rose. Hera, Poseidon as well as their mother Rhea and surprisingly ... Hestia voted for Zeus to be king. However other than that ... there were only a handful of Titans such as Thetis. Hecate, Prometheus and others didn't vote and looked at Zeus questioningly.

.

"Lord Zeus if I may ask a question.", Hecate said. 

"You may.", Zeus said. He did not like where this was going. He had a bad premonition that this was about Hades and he could not use this right now. 

"If we are voting on a ruler, then who else is available to be voted on? Shouldn't there be more than one candidate if we vote? Is Lord Hades also a candidate?"

And there it was. And she was even more blunt than he heard she was. That wasn't good. He had to turn this around.

"I don't know where my brother is. Am I my brother's keeper? As for the candidates, you may vote for anyone that you wish. If you wish to vote for Hades then you are free to do so. However, he is not here now. He knew today would be a vote to decide who would rule Olympus, yet he has not shown. If that doesn't tell you enough about his character, then I don't know what will."

Zeus was going off rails here. He tried to make Hades appear as someone who wasn't interested in the throne, although he was sure that he was. Zeus and Metis were always aware that Hades were the biggest obstacle in his ascent to the throne. 

But now he will take it from him and then he will make the rules. Hades will have to obey him as his king and he will use that.

"I call for a vote now. If you don't wish to vote for me, then don't vote.", Zeus finished. 

.

The vote was once again counted and it turned out that almost all of those present voted for Zeus as ruler. There were only two who didn't want to have Zeus as their ruler. 

Those two were Hecate and Nemesis. Hecate was a smart woman and she was powerful. She understood that there was more to the story than Zeus told everyone. After all, Hades had defeated and even killed one of the two Titans he faced. 

Nemesis on the other hand knew that Zeus was lying. She saw through his lies and was unhappy with it. She also felt more in tune with what Hades represented. She along with Hecate would visit Hades soon to ask for asylum in the Underworld. 

"Good. From this moment on, Zeus is the ruler and king of Olympus. All hail King Zeus!"

"All hail King Zeus!" "All hail King Zeus!" "All hail King Zeus!" "All hail King Zeus!"

"Now as the first act of my rule as king, I decree that the Titans will be imprisoned in Tartarus. There they will serve a sentence for life to pay for their sins of going against us. Let this be a warning to all that want to go against us in the future!"

"Hahahahaha", Atlas was laughing in the back where the Titans were held prisoners.

"What's so funny Atlas?", asked Zeus.

"You truly think you can just imprison the Titans in Tartarus? The sky would fall to the ground if you imprison them. You are not very smart are you?"

"Oh, but I have a solution to this problem, my dear Atlas."

"Aha? And what would that be oh great Zeus?"

"You ... will hold the sky up yourself. That is your punishment."

"What?!? No!"

"Yes and now get him out of my sight!"

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(In the Underworld with Hades and Nyx and Erebus)

"Say Hades ... isn't today the vote to decide the king of Olympus?", asked Erebus.

"Now that you mention it ... yes I believe so. Why?"

"Well ... are you not going? Don't you want to rule?"

"... nah. I will build something much better. Let the useless sit on their gold and marble while I enjoy all my real will have to offer in the future."

Erebus had stars in his eyes.

"Sooo coooool."