17 Chapter 13 ~ The Dark Future
The following hour, we all sat in the living room in our house tree, not a tree house (the distinction is important), sitting in our comfy couch, which the others marveled at the 'invention' a year ago, were all fully occupied by Rhea, along with Hera and Demeter, simply talking.
Well more like Hera was rambling, while Demeter tried to cut time and time again, while Posiedon was trying to drag most of Rhea's attention mostly on him.
Rhea on her part, gave some amount of focus to each of them with a wide smile, listening to all they had to say which then proceeded to force Poseidon to sit on her lap, which he greatly professed against, while Hestia was content to just simply sit next to her with a smile.
As for me…well for me I didn't really know how to feel about this, all that I could think about when I remembered Rhea was Kronos engulfing me, so while the memory of her smile aimed at me was nice…I ultimately suppressed it to the back of my mind.
It was good to see her no doubt, but just a tad awkward after all this time.
It wasn't a minute later in my thoughts that I heard a soft wail from the attendant mother brought with her, and saw a nymph holding who I assume is zeusy, the nymph trying to calm him down.
Walking over, she froze when she turned to look at me, standing before her, I held out my hands to her,…a little hesitant, as she should be, but considering I'm supposedly the brother she gave him to me after a few moments.
Holding him in one hand, I took a good look at him, the most striking thing was his electric blue eyes, he was decently powerful too, he can easily see how Zeus might've originally just been the strongest if the Olympians never even bothered powering through their limits and finding new ways to be stronger.
They would've found that beneath them and with nothing but brute strength, technique was only a thing when it came to weaponry.
Though he didn't have THAT much more power that he would've been able to overpower the original Posiedon and Hades, so I wondered what was up.
The babe never did stop crying, even when he got to my hands, which wasn't really surprising, I don't think I would've calmed down if I saw myself, I am not Hestia.
A minute later, Rhea came over and picked him up from my grasp, before wrapping an arm around my shoulders and pulled me to the others while showcasing the youngest of us.
"Say hello to your youngest kin, your brother, I have named him Zeus," she sounded genuinely happy, if she was a mortal, a human, he would say she sounded like she was riding on a euphoria high.
She is very clingy right now as if, if she doesn't hold onto us for long we may just evaporate in front of her, which is entirely understandable, others didn't seem to mind, if not return the hugs just as strongly.
All was good
Until eventually, nymph looked very uncomfortable and coughed a bit, while softly murmured, "my lady…I wouldn't dare tell you what you should do,..but the sunset…," her voice a bit intimidated the possible ramification for what I assume is her reminder Rhea of something,".
I could see Rhea's form freeze, before clutching us tighter, Posiedon frowned as he popped up her arms and asked, "what's wrong?".
Her eyes squinted as tears gathered up at her corners, "…I can't stay…at least not for long, it was already risky going out weekly to search of you…and if I stay any longer…He will grow suspicious,".
It was now our turn to pause, it was true, while it may not be suspicious of us, with Rhea's frequent departure, and how paranoid Kronos is, it would not be off to mark he would make some wild assumptions that could range from our survival, or Rhea's potential Cheating or setting up some sort of rebellion,…which sounded crazy, but this is the psycho we are talking about.
I could see my fellow godlings look very much upset over this, but the fact they haven't said anything told him they understood the reasons just as much as he did.
It would be best to keep their reunions brief and once in a while, lest it draw the king's eyes.
Giving each of us our own hug, she kissed the crown of our heads, even if I squirmed a bit at mine, she gave a last message, "I'm trusting you with your brother, as you have done well taking care of each other, and remember this, no matter how far I'm at, or how scarce I frequent to you all, I will always love you, that won't change no matter what,".
With that said, she took a step back with a breath, wiped her eyes with her arm, and with one last look, both her and the nymph faded with divine magic.
…this felt bittersweet, nothing was lost, and yet with the reunion with our parent, it reminded us of our situation.
I had almost forgotten, that as much as we enjoyed our life here…it was life in hiding, and it sure as hell wasn't free, it came with the prize that if we were to ever be discovered, we would be either thrown right back in the stomach or thrown right into Tartarus.
Things could not remain the same, it simply can't, because sooner or later…things will change, be it on our terms or not.
I looked back
I could see that each had some sort of revelation of their own, be it the same or different in some way to my own, some looked sad, some becoming determined, another resolved.
Things cannot remain the same, things will not remain the same.
This happy environment will remain as it is, but it isn't irreplaceable anymore, preferably this place will remain untouched, but we will not have many options if the time comes.
"The Titans shall fall".
I knew what it meant when I said that, the four here, excluding Zeus, knew the meaning of my declaration.
And yet they couldn't find anything wrong with that ambition.
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15 years later
Deep in the dead forest of the underworld, where small splashes of life were visible near the hidden haven of the godlings.
It would've been peaceful, in this nearly dead place, if not sounds of rough impacts and thunder in the distance, a bit a ways off the path of the house tree.
There was a tall man with long, black hair, his skin pale, and his eyes were deep purple with his sclera pitch black, he was shirtless and had both of his arms behind his back, with a neutral expression, that some might believe is boredom.
And was currently dodging and weaving around the blows of a young preteen with similar hair coloring, though his skin complexion was a few tones darker, he himself had a pair of lightning blue eyes, who had an frustrated look in his gaze.
"HOLD STILL CORPSE BREATH!!," yelled out what looked like a preteen, throwing several jabs and hooks, while the older one remained unresponsive to the insult.
"And once again, I ask, Zeusy…who is actually going to respond to that and actually stand there,"the one known as Hades rolled his eyes, as he reflexively leaned back from on elbow strike, always keeping his hands behind his back until actually needed.
The mass twitching in his right eye was a dead give away just how much Zeus hated that nickname, what was worse was that mother apparently picked it up and called him that too whenever she came over in her yearly visits, much to his mortification and to the amusement of his siblings.
Zeus reeled back another fist, implying another attempted jab, before all of a sudden, a strong burst of lightning appeared all over his body.
Suddenly the attack changed immediately to that of a kick, with an incredible boost of speed, he spun around and performed a spinning hook kick.
Hades smirked, as he quickly brought up a hand, he deflected and made use of the momentum of the kick to have it go across his chest, a inch above it that is, and lift it up as high as he could to through his brother off balance.
Already seeing it coming, Zeus backflipped out of melee range, before he started to utilize the surrounding areas, dashing with lightning boosted speed across the battlefield, in 3rd dimension too as he folded air on top of air into a pseudo-platform that gave him enough leverage to push off of.
Which did indeed give him an edge on unpredictability on where he would strike.
And honestly took me off guard a bit, when he didn't even make a complete loop of the battlefield at least once before attempting a strike, he typically did that in all other spars they had over the years.
He appeared in front of me and attempted an ax kick to the head, barely giving me enough time to lean back.
I know when I set the rule against me using any of my supernatural abilities that didn't include physical enhancement that I was going to be having a hard time considering Zeus' improvement, but this was getting ridiculous.
As I was leaning back, another kick came my way as I was off balanced, though thankfully…
…I caught it well enough.
I threw my own counter attack to match his own, I gathered a good chunk of my divine mana, as I poured into Destruction: Herculean Might.
Pouring another good amount in Freedom: Movement Master, where my perception and speed move up several notches, now being able to keep up with my younger brother in his own enhanced stance.
Watching him now in slow motion, I rammed my elbow into his gut, a miniature explosion going off on zeus' gut from air igniting out of the sheer friction the speed I went at produced, and watched him shoot out into the wall of the mountainside.
He rammed into the mountain, a mile out, causing a huge opening to appear on its side about several yards wide.
To his credit, that didn't put him down, as he got out moments later, though for a couple of seconds, sparky being the dramatic ass he is, just walked and build up his divine magic.
And apparently decided to throw all caution to the wind as he pumped what I assume is the rest of his mana into himself for a last ditch attack.
I will admit, nice effect, as I watched his black hair burst into light, as he got into a runner stance, or well the version that might guy used, you know? Where his legs are too far apart to actually have a good running start.
It was an incredible amount of speed, not as fast as lightning, but to a mortal there wouldn't be any difference, though…it does seem like this spar has gotten out of hand, time to put bugger out of his misery.
As I put a more overwhelming amount of energy into my attack that I matched perfectly against Zeusy's.
The collision was enormous, an explosion occurred from the sheer force behind my kick that overpowered Zeus'.
Where I sent him back all the way to the mountain he just came out off.
BOOOOOOM!
…Or well, where the mountain used to be, now it is just a crater.
Whistling a tune, I started to make my way over to my kid bro.
Arriving to him,…I can see him lying down in the center of said pit.
Walking for a bit more, I made it to where Zeus was, who was groaning, back in his normal black hair form.
I squatted down, to be closer as I had a wide smirk on my face, "Heeey~ Zeusy!, you had enough for today buddy~?" As I leaned my head to my hand that was resting on my knee.
All I heard was a sigh, as my brother turned his glassy look eyes to me, his mouth and lips looking dry, but had had enough energy to said two words.
"Fuck off"
