บท 73: I'm Hades Straight Up 2
(Hades POV)
I never thought I would be able to comprehend divinity; maybe even now, I am barely able to scratch the surface.
Is divinity simply a belief-given form, or is it something else, a higher form of energy?
As I sat there, in the small hidey hole within Kronos's stomach, I pondered this question as I practiced and began to make my divinity more precise. From what I can understand, I can much more precisely affect the life and death of all things, specifically the death part.
Even the small act of placing my hand on the part of the stomach causes it to begin to rot. Still, due to Cronus's regeneration, the rot would disappear as if it was never there, although a small part of me was hoping I was giving this guy the real-life version of ulcers.
That is why I feel limited within this space; it is as if every part of me is being reduced in some way. Yet, I find myself becoming stronger as a result, barely noticeable, but it is getting easier to use my day by day.
I also found another way to use my authority over Death that is causing the acid around the stomach to disappear as I walk through, so now I could essentially walk through the pools of acid, but only for a short while as I feel exhausted after hours of doing so.
But that is not even the strangest thing. I feel a connection forming between me and something else, something I can't see but feel. I assume this is my connection to the underworld, but unlike what I expected, it felt like something that truly belonged to me.
As I ponder this growing connection, I come across what appears to be a large clump of overgrown flesh. As I climb the giant mass, I begin to hear noise coming from above.
"Someone else is here?" I heard as I climbed upwards.
"It could be another sibling of ours, sister?" Another voice asked as I scaled the mound
As my hand finally graced the top of the mound, I pulled myself up and found three women waiting for me, all essentially naked as the day they were born.
The first woman I saw was Hestia, who looked almost plain among the three, yet I could see differently. In her eyes, there was nothing but an orange flame, inviting as it was dangerous.
The second woman, Demeter, was almost motherly in looks, but I could feel life surrounding her in spades. The amount of life she exuded almost blinded me on the first side. I actually found it beautiful, but then my attention was taken by the third, the future queen of Olympus. My thoughts on her are muddled, to say the least.
Even with my shattered memories, I could recall a few things, some basic trivia, among other things. The look in her eyes did not seem to match her regal visage. The problem with identifying the three was that unlike Hestia, who seems to have a stable form of an almost plain brunette woman, the other two were almost shifting. Demeter seems to like herself to be a mature woman with long flowing brown hair and a rather buxom figure.
Meanwhile, Hera seems almost to try to make herself superior to the other two in stature and beauty. Her hair is more black, and her eyes show a multitude of greens and yellows.
I stood up and looked at the three by simply waving my hand. I formed three cloaks in front of me, which admittedly brought a small amount of tiredness into my being.
Offering them the cloaks, they looked at me with various amount of emotions passing through their eyes, but the one who I assume is Hestia in the eyes, and as I returned her, a small smile on her face as she took one of the cloaks from me and pulled it around herself.
"Thank you, brother. May we know your name?" Hesta asked as the other two took the cloaks and wrapped them around each other. The one whom I assume to be Hara seems almost dissatisfied with them, but I merely continue to think of her response.
" I am Hades, nothing more, nothing less. May I ask for your name?" My answer is met with a slight grin from the goddess of the hearth.
"My name is Hestia, nothing more, nothing less." A slight smirk formed on my face as I heard her answer.
"I am Demeter, goddess of the harvest. You feel odd to me." her answer was less of an answer and more of a question, but before I could respond, Hera interrupted.
"I am Hera, goddess of family. I assume you know who we are?" I slightly narrowed my eyes at her, as her tone was less than polite.
Standing before her, my stature larger than her own, her eyes remained staunchly on mine.
"We are siblings, yes, but I must ask if any of you have an idea of how to escape." All I met with was other and complete hopelessness, and that was all the answer I needed.
Sighing, I looked at each of them and simply said, " Know this, sisters, we shall see the sun soon enough."
"And how do you know this, brother Hades?" Demeter asked as we sat down next to a small fire made by Hestia's divinity.
"A feeling is all I can provide." The response gives nothing more than fleeting happiness.
"But let us use this time to further ourselves and our power. Time is ironically our greatest asset." While I was met with suspicion, I could see my words getting through to them.
And in that moment, I began to train.
At first, it was very simple things like trying to control the amount of rot I could spread and how deep it would go. The power was basic: I had to further it by forcing living matter into a rotting state based on the passage of time.
Days passed as I trained my abilities, as well as my body, how I trained my body differently from my other skills as I used my authority over death to essentially kill the possibility of gravity, not being heavier than me.
So, it even became a challenge as I felt thousands upon thousands of pounds of weight added on overtime. Yet, I could barely keep this training regimen up in the beginning as the suppression of our divinities from the stomach of our father kept us from going too far.
I noticed something different in comparison to the rest. My growth was not stopping, and while it never increased. It never stalled like theirs.
Over time, I was able to differentiate the three based on their personalities alone. While the future queen of Olympus likes to act in charge, she always defers to those who are stronger than her. Well, Demeter seems to like to go with the flow, almost seeing the amount of life she could create.
Hestia, on the other hand, acted as almost support for us, making sure that our father's suppression effect never reached us as hard as it did before. I came to respect her flame as well. She was never a fighter and never would be, but I enjoyed the support nonetheless.
But I also could not ignore their flaws. Hera was vindictive and cynical, blaming their fate upon the very universe itself and seeking to punish them, while Demeter seemingly developed some form of claustrophobia from being in such a tight space. Anyone could tell from a distance that she longed for freedom, and it was that same passion that was her greatest weakness.
On the other hand, Hestia seemed almost withdrawn and distant as time passed and the days passed. I was nearly confused as to how I could tell the passage of time as the stomach didn't exactly have a day or night cycle, but eventually, we were able to pass based on the food being eaten by Kronos.
Thankfully, because we were gods, we didn't need to eat to survive, and I was not yet desperate enough to lower myself to eat someone's scraps.
Even my own mentality shifted over time as I felt my divinities and authorities begin to resonate more and more. Where once I could only cause physical matter to rot away, I could now affect more esoteric concepts, such as the previously mentioned gravity.
There were no weapons to use as Kronos wasn't exactly a sword swallower, so in terms of martial and more weapon based arts, I am definitely lacking.
But as I looked at the three, they all looked to the top of the stomach, where we saw the figure begin to fall into the depths of the acid.
Poseidon had arrived. So, time was running out.
(So yeah, it's a cliche Cronus stomach training chapter. Just to be aware, the main character has lost a decent amount of their memories due to almost being cleansed during his cycle of reincarnation, so he doesn't know where he is universe-wise. Also, be mindful of the nature of the Marvel Universe timeline. Some dates may differ, and I may have to change a few things.)
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