Chapter 14 ~ Scheming Darkness​

It was a beautiful day like any other, birds were chirping, the sky as blue as it can be, the wildlife full of mystery and trials to survive.

The titans roamed about, near their selected choice of dwelling, the king and the queen sat on their respective thrones.

But this isn't about them.

Deep. Deep into the earth, the ground all beings alive walk upon, deeper not in a literal sense, but essence wise.

Until a being, shuffled in a deep sleep, or at least, it should've been a deep one at the moment, but…a dream brought it closer to a waking.

Six figures, standing before a far larger adversary, one wielding a familiar weapon she had brought into existence so many years ago.

The dream unfolded, where the ruler of the cosmos would be brought down, locked away, and replaced by three.

A prophetic dream, this one realized, be it from that of her own power, one from a Titan, from a kin,…or perhaps from them? Khaos, who has never once done anything after creating the ones in the beginning after him.

Her child of time…who had broken his promise, but was her son regardless…was to be brought down by a thousand slashes,…the same way his father was brought down before him and replaced.

It tore at her, to have to choose, but she chose the ones that were more directly related to her.

Still asleep, and yet aware, if ever so lightly, she focused her attention on her poor child, who had swallowed something he was not supposed to, something vulnerable and yet by nature deadly.

She could not do much, she was too tired at the moment…but she can provide a push for him to succeed.

Creation, the very fabric, something only a primordial would notice, shook ever so slightly, and yet frantically, shifted, made to be moved.

And reached out.

The Shard, the collective residue of what was affecting her beloved child, inherited knowledge, residing in the shard, of a plane even higher than that of the First Primordial, and one piece of knowledge that was in the shard…she would make use of.

She brought the shard of Death to her, being ever so careful at handling what was essentially the peak of her opposite, a single error that would cause incredible, and irrevocable, harm to her entirety.

And…extended past Khaos, farther than anyone else dared to go, past anything that was possible to go through, but she had no fear, she knew what was beyond, the information was ingrained into the shard her son had been unknowingly harvesting from his offspring for several decades.

The shard had an odd property, that said property used to attract the attention of certain things.

Using it…she can already tell more than dozens were rapidly approaching the location of the shard that was acting like a beacon to her targets.

Feeling them out as they approached closer and closer…she readily picked out of all of them that were not too weak, but more importantly were not beyond her control.

And quickly snatched her chosen one…

And quite a curious thing, more thoughts and feelings than actual form of any kind, nonsensical instincts that have it shape so similar to that of a True Form of a deity that would cause a mortal to instantly die from looking at them.

So starved,…so old, and yet young, the first chance it sensed a piece of her grandson, it/they swarmed off so fast to her with no thought or concern.

And yet, this was them, there was no true form, this is simply how they operate, these little gods of their own right, if you stretch it.

For several lengths of time that had no meaning to her, she had the beast in her grasp, understanding it, taming it, molding it to something to make use of.

Until she deemed it acceptable to be made use of.

Ever so slightly she leaned back, effectively blocking and shifting the view of those that sees beyond the line of time, it would not do for them to see what is to come from this.

She grabbed her dear child's essence, who instantly tensed up and furiously resisted…before he realized who it was… instantly submitting to mommy like the good boy he usually is, despite him being naughty and disobeying her request about her firstborns.

She let loose the thing into her son, and just as it was intended and redefined for the past time,…it merged with her child,…and became one.

Her child…was no longer suffering, in fact…he had never been better.

Present Day

"You're sure you don't want me to restore you to peak?" Asked hades, this being a third time in concern with a raised eyebrow.

He was currently walking by his youngest sibling, watching said teen limp along his way back to home/base.

Zeus' right eye twitched, "yes, I'm sure, leave me alone," he replied stubbornly, as he (tried) to hold his head high up, "as if this would be enough to be on my knees begging,".

Teenage pride at its finest the eldest brother assumed, unreasonable and accusing.

Over the years, it became more and more amusing to him over what kind of changes he has brought to the one who has single handedly essentially created 75% of Greek mythology.

He was a brooder!

Honestly, he didn't expect that young god of Thunder…to essentially be a goth, at least in how he acts at times and the other times acting like a emo drama queen.

"Besides," Zeus smirked as he quickly turned away from Hades and looked to his left with eyes closed with a smirk, "it wouldn't do to heal these wounds after the glorious attack I released on you,".

The eldest brother refrained himself from reminding him that the wounds were from the failure of his attack landing, he would be angrily glaring down at his meal for the following week in deep thought otherwise.

A hand wrapped around Zeus as he was pulled into a hug as the other hand went to the crown of his head for a noogie, "aw how precious, I will admit it was impressive, you even nailed the dramatic walk beforehand," he complimented, all he received from him however was a thrashing boy furiously yelling "UNHAND ME!" at him.

All the annoyed lightning god got was an amused laugh.

Hades had trained incredibly hard every year, more determined than before on what he has to accomplish, alongside his siblings, even Zeus, despite never knowing hardships

For Aspect Space, he had managed to achieve teleportation, locking up space of weaker foes, manipulating the mass, density, and even the size of objects the size of his palm.

…so essentially he can throw pebbles that grow the size of mansions, he wasn't particularly sure how effective that would be however.

Aspect Time was however trickier to time, being able to rewind up to and fast forward 5 seconds.

At the current moment he used that to reposition himself or other objects through time in an attack, Time: Tachyon Lord proved to be a unique challenge, where at the moment slowing down time wasn't particularly different than heightening his perception.

Life: Renewal…he would like to think he was somewhat proficient, it's his opposite, so no one can blame him that it took him entirely too much time to heal, though he hasn't tested it against toxins or disease for obvious reasons.

Death: Weaver of Destiny,…was being a bit annoying, it takes time to actually look at something at the beginning, he had to look at each "string" of Destiny, and he always looks either incredibly too soon, or literally centuries ahead of random someone's Destiny.

Death: Reaper's Blade is coming along fine,…but from what he understands, it's the Ultimate version of the ability that would make it possible to bring divinity lesser than mine to their knees, so while it had by far the best progress…there isn't really a point at mass killing mortals and animals/plants, and even then…he can only do about a hundred at a time thanks to being a Late Bloomer.

Death: Dark Commandment is on the same boat, it has incredible potential, but it would take too long to reach the deep end of undead such as Liches and truly powerful vampires, so he was stuck with skeletons and zombies…not useful unless used for scouting…for whatever reason if scrying and other means are out of the question.

Creation: Recreation is what he meant where he would "repair" Zeus, being able to restore anyone back to their undamaged selves, Creation: Days of Genesis, he was proud how far he got with it.

Complex things like clocks and microwaves were a breeze, he could blast pure elements like a high level DnD Evocation Wizard, and has built up his shield to maybe be able to block Zeus' "finisher" moves and Poseidon's water slasher.

He found Destruction to be rather simple, but he was still at the stages where he wouldn't be able to effect a god, Destruction: Herculean Might, however he could content with the big leagues.

Freedom: Movement Master at where he is now if he would to focus entirely on that, only really Zeus could effectively fight me at those speeds.

He never really Improved Darkness, Heart or Mind beyond their base, and to help Hestia to a degree with Heart, he decided to focus on the specialized degree for the upcoming war.

The three have their uses, but he had already branched off further than he thought he would initially, so he shouldn't spread himself too thinly.

As for his Forms…he felt it, he was close to unlocking his first form…and his inner world, it's only a matter of time…or well the latter, his Divine Form he felt would probably be during a times of stress or some kind of push, as he struggled with the Shapeshifting process.

It was more…instinctual, he wasn't sure how he was going to go about it normally as he failed to acquire it.

Demeter's progress had certainly progressed, in fact, they were currently traveling through an entirely forest of trees that lacked leaves, each having huge, sharp branches that were meant to impale, the only thing alive are the withering flowers along the bark spewing remnants of a gassy substance.

Hera was actually coming along nicely, though she wasn't really able to attack, but her illusions were incredibly convincing, the only problem is that she requires for something to actually be there to manipulate the appearance of.

It can be a god, rock, or moving tree, or even a cloud, but something has to be visibly there to manipulate it.

Not ideal, but it is certainly something, she was also working on something…but was remaining tight lipped about it, as she wasn't entirely sure if it were possible or not she admitted.

Posiedon and Zeus both were even matched surprisingly…yeah, Posiedon used to tease Zeus initially in their sparring match.

Zeus in sheer frustration, and a lot of sweat and Ichor, (he also refused to admit he let out a tear), managed to catch up,…which of course made Posiedon go harder to stay somewhat ahead of in league with his younger brother.

Poseidon is good enough to control several strings of compressed water that can fire off either as something as precise and thinly sharp like a scalpel, or fire it off like a Hydro Pump.

With alternatives to attacking water in the form of weapons, or literally just creating a bunch of it to slow down foes or absorb impacts with them.

Zeus' approach was more speed than anything else, where he really thrived in melee, but he didn't slack in range either, his bolts of lightning along with his speed were something to watch for…not to mention his attack during a thunderstorm.

As for Hestia-

"Welcome back…Zeus, why are you still hurt," Hestia asked with a monotone tone, clearly not surprised over his appearance.

The youngest's expression was perfectly blank, "nonya business," his arms crossed,…we stood there for a moment before Hestia pinched his cheek.

"Stop"

"No"

"Let him heal you"

"Never"

"Zeus…,"

"Fuck off"

Hades watched intrigued when Hestia's response other than her twitching brow was to pinch down harder, Zeus pulled her hand off and went down a hallway, a destination in mind, "I'm going to unwind in the spring,".

Hestia let out an exasperated sigh, as Hades laughed at the front door.

Calming down, he walked up to the eldest, and said, "so how's progress," he said out of curiosity.

She remained silent for a moment, before she replied while turning to him, "while I'm still working on the empathetic side…why don't you experience it for yourself,".

Suddenly, He felt a connection between her and him, he could feel where she was, even if she was literally in front of him, he could feel her condition be it health or mana wise…also her emotional state over how worried she is for Zeus.

Hades nodded, she wasn't a fighter, she wasn't a type to pick up a weapon, not that she wasn't willing to support however, this was he way, "so you accomplished it,".

She did frown slightly, " "a group of one or more parents and their children living together as a unit",..while not inaccurate, I don't like how something like family has been put into something that simple…and cold,".

"Of course it isn't that simple, we both know that, it's just a literal meaning that could be used to help you develop a technique," he immediately replied, with this they would know the state of each other, no matter in the battlefield or real far apart.

She was lost in thought for a bit before shaking her head and looking at me, "by the way, allies have arrived, they are currently making use of the spare room to prepare for the meeting later today,".

Hades nodded, they trained as much as they could, it was time for the preparation.

Sooo, a quick note, for the being at the beginning, (I mean I personally think is obvious), I was suggested by a second pair of eyes to maybe make her thought process more alien like that of a Eldritch, and I thought that would be cool…the problem however was that this was supposed to be her POV,…so I didn't have a fucking clue how to go about that without drugging myself, so I went on. 🤷‍♂️