Chapter 253 - 3.10 How Things Were

Zeus and his brothers didn’t always get along growing up, especially after Zeus overthrew their father to take over Paradise. Hades hated that he was thrust into the Underworld to lead over the souls of the damned while Poseidon got to roam freely from sea to sea. Posi got bored quickly as the humans who managed to catch a glimpse didn’t really care that he was there. All anyone cared about were Zeus and his daughters.

Once the gods began interacting with the races of humanity, Zeus created the Nova Universe with Nexus, Exteria, and Solstice. The people loved him for it. Things were finally moving toward peace so he decided to rest. He thought by choosing Athena his brothers would be able to do whatever they wanted, wherever they wanted. Hades was married to Persephone and he thought Posi was happy living freely.

He was wrong but Athena was able to see things from a different perspective.

Her and her two sisters were very close but Eris was significantly younger than Athena and Aphrodite. Zeus only spent tens of thousands of years with Eris, whereas with Athena and Aphrodite, it was hundreds of thousands.

On a summer evening after Athena was selected, Hades met with the god of the sea and had a clear plan: Take over Paradise when the time was right. Poseidon immediately loved the idea and the two began plotting and planning whenever they’d have free time. To Athena and Paradise, it just looked like two brothers getting together to spend time together.

To Athena, it looked like a plan to overthrow her. She always got prickly hairs on the back of her neck whenever they would meet. It’d never been in an obvious or likely destination, rather, somewhere strange.

’Why would they be meeting so secretively on a small planet in the Orion Universe when everyone knows they are close and they are brothers?’ She thought while watching them one evening.

Everything in her world seemed off and Eris was busy goofing off.

"You should create the titans and let me put you in my prison, just in case."

"What the hell? Why would I do that?" Eris said with a raised eyebrow.

"When the time comes, you’ll be sprung free by people trying to harm Paradise and the planets of the Universe. Pretend to be on their side and when the time is right, you can flip."

"What about Pride? I can’t just leave him."

"Don’t worry, I have a plan for him too." Athena reassured her sister.

"Prison sucks, doesn’t it?"

"Oh hush. You’ll be in solitude but Pride can teleport and I’ll just set up false prison walls. I’ll say you’re a prisoner of high security and you can do whatever you want. I’ll even leave windows for you so you can planet watch."

"Fine but when this is done Pride and I get to rest and do whatever we want for a long time, right?" Eris begged her sister.

"Yes, of course. I just don’t trust our Uncles. Everything about them screams betrayal."

"Yeah... I think they’re upset dad put you in charge. They never visit and they aren’t the same."

"It’s a shame." Athena said while hugging her sister.

She created a fancy, high security prison and Eris was buried deep within Paradise. Pride could freely teleport to her, which he did often, but once he was summoned to be the right hand man of Azazel, Eris knew it was only a matter of time before she was broken out.

’I can do this... I can do this.’ She told herself until she was blue in the face. Eris was nervous that her overly kind nature would be her demise but her abilities always served her well.

******

Meanwhile, Posi and Hades had plans with great ambition. They were going to take over the world and shatter Athena and Aphrodite’s souls and take their power. Hades formulated the plan to have his brother create and hide in his own realm, especially one away from water, to throw every one off his scent. It worked and they got the opening they needed when Selene created Vampires for Exteria.

Exteria was sent into chaos so they used Helen to spring Eris from Athena’s prison.

’I can’t believe they’re taking the bait!’ Eris thought excitedly, pretending to be excited to see Helen and Azazel.

Hades began visiting Poseidon often and the two decided that creating another species that could regenerate and ultimately recycle themselves was their best route, so they quickly got to work using Azazel, Helen, Eris and the Titans to capture the lifeforce from each planet. They’d rob them dry and kill off everyone. They rarely made mistakes when they started.

Pride was leading the sins like it was nothing but he always saw them as pathetic creations that weren’t worth anyone’s time. Even the demons and werewolves were useless to him. He could destroy them all in one fell swoop, but he loved the power he received from Eris on a regular basis.

Everything, according to Hades and the god of the Sea, was going perfectly, until Eris and Pride flipped back to Athena’s side.

"What a stupid fucking bitch!" Hades screamed in anger. "Pride was a god all along?! How the fuck did we miss that!"

"Eris’ abilities brother, relax. There’s nothing we can do now. I think it’s time we move on to phase two."

Hades’ anger quickly diminished while Poseidon rolled out the first batch of their new creations. Perfect humanoid bodies with thick reptilian skin that would regenerate instantly. They were lean, muscular, tall and completely white. The only thing missing were the eye sockets.

"I’ll be your first test subject when you’re ready," Posi said confidently.

"Ok, I’ll start trials on the little minion fuckers I’ve created with the ruptures. Hopefully Lox keeps his fucking mouth shut and we have a one way ticket into Paradise!" Hades cackled.

"We both know he’ll get caught. He loves Leila too much and with everything that’s happened to her... how the hell did she live?"

"Fucking brat of prophecy and his dumbass party. I’d be more worried if Rook got out than the dragonness. Chimera’s still exist. Dragon’s don’t." Hades smirked.

"Don’t get me wrong it’s still a shame she got out but that’s what happens when you leave a demon to do a god’s job!"

"What about this child you speak of?"

"Oh, Sora? We’re powering him up in hopes he flips. Worst case, we just steal all of the power back and spread it out between you and me."

"Are you certain that’s such a good idea?"

This was the one thing the two could never seem to agree on. Powering up someone to the point where they could possibly become a problem seemed like a conflict of interest for Poseidon, especially with how infatuated Helen was with Azazel.

"What if he is to marry they both become a god? What then?" Poseidon tried challenging Hades.

"Then we have two more powerful gods to kill and it’s more power for us. What has you so hung up on this? There’s a 50 percent chance he flips and blows up the planet anyway so what’s the damn difference?"

"Ok, say he does flip and blows up the planet. Then we steal the power and take the fight to Paradise. They’ll still be prepared and ready for us. I don’t think our creations will pose that much of a threat to Athena and company?"

"You’re thinking way too far ahead. We don’t even have a single batch done, the eyes are in beta testing and you worry too much. Let’s just go with the flow and see what happens."

"Whatever you say brother. I still think you’re trusting Chronos too much."

"We all know Chronos looks out for himself. Don’t dwell on that. He’s probably feeding my niece the same information anyway. When we’re ready, we will dominate. Don’t worry!"

*****

Poseidon gave Hades a nasty glare as the two returned to their new secret hideout after just watching their army get burned to shreds, quickly.

"I told you that we shouldn’t have let them power up so much," Posi said while shaking his head.

"It’s one fucking battle! Relax, you get worked up over the silliest things. It’s not like those souls won’t just be recycled immediately back into new hosts. Perse has over 100,000 for us this time."

"So double what we lost? Just imagine if we still had 50,000 for 150,000 total."

"Then we wouldn’t have gained the invaluable information that they’re split up and Sora is trusting the phoenix as a god. That will be his biggest mistake. Although, those vampires are an annoying bunch. Fucking Selene!" Hades complained.

"I warned you."

"So what! Yes you’ve warned me this entire time but you’ve been here, doing all the undercover work for how long? Do you need to let loose and raise some hell or something?"

"That would be nice." Posi smirked.

"Then go do your thing, you don’t need my permission."

"Thank you brother."

Poseidon teleported to Haven.

’They’ll never know what hit them.’