7 The One where A Choice Is Made

Unknown POV:

Now, while I would love to tell you how, as soon as I read those words, my mind began to explode with ideas on how to minimize these wishes to the best of my ability, the truth of the matter is that due to how cliche this whole situation was my mind melted, well not literally, after all, it is impossible to melt something which doesn't exist, turns out being a celestial being does have its benefits.

After finally recovering from what I can only describe as my mind-melting, I began to root my memories, searching for worlds and universes that once only existed in the minds of authors and scriptwriters in my previous life. Now, however, their existence lay entirely on whether or not I chose to reincarnate into them. The endless possibilities span through my mind, overwhelming me. After all, how was I to choose? I could be a Kryptonian in Marvel, a Saiyan in DC, or even a shinobi in Avatar. All of these countless choices left my non-existent aching somehow.

I decided that the only way I would ever make my choice was by filtering out worlds based on my desires; I began by instantly removing any dark soul's worlds from my selection, with no need to get caught up in that mess. I then decided to remove both the DC and Marvel universes, respectably, due to the uncountable amount of nigh-omnipotent beings that made up for all of the great powers and resources that both universes would have granted me.

As I went along eliminating worlds, I was reminded of a book series that I read when I was younger, a famous tale of a boy's deep dive into the world of mythology, reliving experiences of legends once thought false in the eyes of most whether it be Greek, Norse or Egyptian mythology. This world would allow me to not only build up a stable power base but had an assortment of characters that I could choose to reincarnate into that would give me a good boost to my strength, more specifically, the Gods.

So, after staring blankly at the scroll for a few minutes with no changes occurring, it wasn't until I was about to begin panicking that the scroll once again began to draw ink from the walls to write out...

-WORLD SELECTED- PJO universe (Greco-Roman Mythology Only)

Now, you may wonder why I chose only to include the Greek and Roman mythologies. I want to say I did it because I didn't want to have to share my dominion/divinity with another being, never mind someone from a completely separate pantheon; the truth is I knew I would struggle to remember the names and domains of the Gods in my pantheon never mind accidentally offending several nigh-omnipotent beings due to forgetting about them, so I decided only to include Greco-Roman mythology.

My first wish was pretty easy to decide, at least in theory. After all, there was no way I would allow who I was reincarnated to be a surprise. I would hate to have gone through all this thought only to be reincarnated as a demi-god son of Iris; no, that would be most unfortunate. 

So I began to ponder on which God I would choose to be reborn as I narrowed it down to Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, and Apollo; this may seem obvious, but there are a lot of Gods in Greco-Roman mythology with a lot of potential like Ares, Hephaestus, and Hermes even some of the minor or less critical Gods like Hecate or Nike had a lot of room for growth. Still, these four Gods were not only the most potent Gods on their own, but I always felt that they could have grown even stronger if they focused more on securing their strength and domains rather than sating their egos and lusts.

Now, from these four, Zeus was the first to be eliminated. To fulfill his role in the mythos, I would have to be very charismatic and outgoing, willing to make harsh and downright cruel decisions made not only on my enemies but also on my kin, something which my mortal self was not yet ready to consider especially when you consider that Zeus was responsible for the birth of a lot of significant deities but also how said deities were born. So Zeus was out...

Next was Apollo. While he may have had the most potential of these options, at least when compared to his canon counterpart, I faced similar problems that I had when considering Zeus; he was too outgoing and charismatic and responsible for a lot of important events, both cruel and significant alike, and while I was sure I could have probably been capable of such events I would lack a domain like the traditional big three that would see me protected by the ancient laws from trespassers and invaders. Thus, Apollo was also out...

After a long deliberation, I finally decided to remove Poseidon. Admittedly, this took as long as it did because I think Poseidon has the coolest domains and titles. Also, my personal favorite God in the original canon was just a less powerful, more wrathful version of Zeus, at least until canon; I would also have to deal with being the creator of creatures such as the Minotaur and the Gorgon sisters and while I could maybe make these stories less tragic Fate in the PJO universe always came to pass one way or another.

So that left only one option left...Hades, probably one of the most misunderstood characters in media, vilified as the Greek mythological version of the devil. In truth, out of all the Gods, Hades is one of the better. After all, there's a reason he was entitled to the hospitable one. He did his duty and ruled the underworld pretty somewhat, especially when you consider it was pretty much a prison made to keep him from Olympus, and even though he's so prevalent in modern mythos, he isn't that relevant when you consider the other deities, this is mainly because he was confined to the underworld for a majority of the Greek mythos and thus unlike the other Gods didn't have the time to create hordes of monstrous beings. He was also one of the few faithful deities to his spouse.

Hades even allowed Orpheus to save his wife from the underworld despite the fact that he had no reason to...Overall, Hades was pretty chill. Combine that with the fact he ruled over the Greco-Roman afterlife in its entirety as unlike in Norse or Biblical Mythos, in Greco-Roman mythos; there was no Valhalla or Heaven for the Gods favored; he also ruled over all the metal that existed beneath the earth, granting him the name the rich one. And considering the way most Gods are kidnaping your niece and forcing her to marry you, it is pretty tame in the grand scheme of things.

Of course, Hades and I share a lot of our personality traits. We both feel incredibly bitter about the hand fate dealt us and spend all our days sulking and moaning about it. We are both hardcore introverts, so he was the obvious choice with everything said and done.

-Wish 1 Selected!- Reborn as Aidoneus(Hades)

With my future self selected, it was time to choose my final two wishes, which were a lot harder than expected as I needed a way to increase my power in a way that wasn't either too powerful or too weak, as if I came out of Rhea's womb exploding with power there's no way Kronos wouldn't just cut me to ribbons like Ouranos never mind what effect Zeus' paranoia or Poseidon's jealousy would have in the future thus I decided to add some additional domains that would grow stronger with time and could be excused as being natural.

-Wish 2 Selected!- Domain added Divination(The art of Predicting or viewing the Future )

-Wish 3 Selected!- Domain added Forbidden Knowledge(All knowledge considered taboo or forgotten)

I'll be honest: I struggled with developing some domains that would make sense and not be questionable for the lord of the Dead. Still, I'm quite proud of these as they are already pretty powerful but are not something that will give me an immediate power boost. Rather, something that I can learn to control can become very powerful, especially when you consider how important Fate is within the PJO universe and how powerful the beings who can manage or view Fate are.

Furthermore, the amount of knowledge of godly artifacts, curses, or locations lost by time or forbidden that could be discovered with my domain of banned knowledge is invaluable, especially when it has the potential to alert me to plots or schemes that may be happening around me.

As the last letter was formed on the scroll in front of me confirming my wishes, for the first time since I had found my way into the void, a bright light filled the space, growing from the size of a cheap hand-powered torch until it bathed the room in the light once again obscuring the view of my surroundings although this time for a completely different reason. Drawing me in like the force that first brought me to the void, bathing me in scolding hot heat that seemed to boil my very essence, and with a flash, the light was gone and me with it.

Ready to begin my new life as...Hades, King of the Underworld, Lord of the Dead, the rich, the silent, the hospitable, God of the Dead, Riches, Divination, and Forbidden Knowledge...