Before our era, before time itself existed, there was nothing.
It was an abyss without end or form, with the sole purpose of eternally torturing the miserable existences that emerged from it.
The concepts we now take for granted had no relevance in the middle of nowhere.
But from that infinite abyss emerged chaos.
The primordial force that shaped everything.
From the chaos emerged Gaia, a primordial being representing the Earth, and along with the starry skies, Uranus gave birth to the first inhabitants of this Earth... the Titans.
And then the reign of the Titans, Cyclopes and Hecatonchires began.
His reign spanned thousands of years, there was peace and harmony in that... Majestic kingdom.
But...
Everything good always has an end.
And this end was born with a prophecy.
A prophecy that would leave the descendants of Uranus cursed.
The prophecy stated that.
"Children will overthrow or kill their own parents to take their places until the end of time."
....
Uranos was afraid, he was afraid of being overthrown by his own children.
So, in his fear, he locked his offspring in Tartarus.
Which is a representation of what was once the emptiness of the universe.
And just like that, his fate was sealed.
And the cycle began.
A full-scale war broke out in his kingdom, a war caused by the fear of Uranos and the discontent of Gaia.
And after that war, Uranos was castrated and locked up by one of his sons.
Cronus, who took power and took the place of his own father, now banished from the kingdom that he himself created with his wife, Gaia.
....
Cronus, now king of the Titans, ruled with his sister and wife Rhea.
But, like his father, he too feared being overthrown by one of his sons.
And then, a macabre idea crossed his mind.
He... would eat his own offspring to avoid the same fate as his father.
....
However, Rhea, upon giving birth to her last child, Zeus, deceived Cronus, giving him a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes instead of the baby.
Zeus grew up in secret and, when he reached maturity, he forced Cronus to vomit up his brothers and sisters.
Who, together with the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires, joined their cause to overthrow the Titans in a merciless fight.
The war that was fought is now known as the Titanomachy.
After the brutal battle, hundreds of Cyclopes, Hecatonchires and some Olympians died.
And each of the Titans was imprisoned in Tartarus for the rest of eternity, along with the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires, who were betrayed by the Olympians.
....
Now with Cronus overthrown, there was a vacant position, a place of power which was taken by the instigator of this rebellion.
And so, Zeus became the king of the Olympians.
....
But he couldn't rule the entire universe by himself.
It was thus that he decided to divide his domains with his older brothers.
Zeus took the sky, Poseidon took the sea, and I... took the Underworld.
.....
But then, a new conflict arose.
How shall we rule an empty kingdom?
....
It was then that Prometheus, one of the few Titans who survived, modeled the first human beings using clay, giving them a form similar to that of the gods.
At this action, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, breathed life into these clay figures, giving them a soul.
And so, men were created.
But that was the beginning of my descent into madness.
The human being was blessed with the gift of free will.
Zeus believed that humans would be good and loving to each other.
But, they were nothing more than filthy and disgusting animals.
Their savagery and lack of morals flooded Olympus with lost souls.
In the face of this, a duty was imposed upon me.
And it was to guide the souls of the dead to eternal damnation or to an unparalleled rest.
And that, is what brought me to my current state.
Unlike my brothers, I... have grown older.
Once, I had the greatest strength among my brothers.
I was the oldest, and the strongest of all.
But... Now I'm just an old man tired of life.
Yet, I sit here watching the souls, as it is my only duty and the way I can indirectly take care of my little brothers.
Without me, souls would attack Olympus once again.
....
Certainly, not even a God who has lived for so many thousands of years can escape the flow of time and the curse of loneliness.
....
But it wasn't always like this.
I... I once had a wife, a beautiful spring flower.
Her charm, her scent, her happiness, everything about her, made me fall in love with her to the core.
And, unlike my brothers, I was never unfaithful, I never looked at other women, because... I had the most beautiful one next to me.
But... In the 6-month cycle that I negotiated with her mother to have her with me, I received a disastrous letter from one of my nephews.
"I will never return to that pigsty with no future," said the letter, sealing my fate.
....
Hermes tried to persuade me, he thought I would explode with anger.
But I simply retreated to my throne.
I simply wrapped myself up in my work to try to forget the only woman I've ever loved.
.....
That happened... More than 2000 years ago.
.....
But... in the midst of my loneliness, I met a nymph, a beautiful girl, who helped me in my grief.
She was kind and helpful, I... I considered her as my own daughter.
Little Minte...
My eyes moistened slightly, remembering the horrible punishment that my sister, Demeter, imposed on the little nymph when she believed that he was unfaithful to her daughter with a nymph.
....
His punishment...
She... Was cursed and turned into a plant.
.....
Little tears come to my eyes just remembering the poor girl's cheerful and optimistic attitude.
....
If only I were a little stronger, if only old age hadn't caught up with me, I... could I be happy? Could I have protected little Minte? If I were stronger, would Persephone have abandoned me the same way she did?
....
Don't know.
....
Now... I can only operate on autopilot, watching the countless sins of humanity.
So many unjust deaths, so much blood shed at the whim of those who, according to them, have political power.
That... disgusts me.
How many families have been devastated by simple whims, simple coincidences.
Hell is full of souls, Tartarus has long since been filled with the most corrupt souls that humanity could have produced in these thousands of years of history.
I am aware of wars, which kill countless humans, I am aware of terrorism, drug trafficking, and human trafficking.
So many atrocities happening there, it only makes me feel sorry for the young generation that passes through my hands at the moment of death.
So many children who just need to forget, who just need to rest.
...
And thanks to this, the Elysian Fields, like its counterpart Tartarus, were filled long ago.
....
There was no more room for souls.
There was no longer room in hell to house hundreds of billions of souls.
In this, Zeus, my little brother, recommended that I pass those souls through the river of oblivion, Lethe.
No matter what sins those souls had, I... had to take them through the river of oblivion to wash away their most repugnant sins.
But... That evil had to go somewhere.
The riverbed headed towards the surface, to the fields of Olympus.
That was the beginning of the end.
Every soul that was sent to other worlds or dimensions ruled by other gods, always committed atrocities.
They always fell into sin no matter how pure the soul was at the time of passing through Lethe.
The gods of those worlds, far from being angry, were ecstatic.
They considered it a monumental source of entertainment.
I... I became the simple owner of a circus of psychopaths.
But it didn't stop there.
Zeus, seeing the success of his idea, convinced me to take the most righteous souls directly to reincarnation without first putting them through Lethe.
....
I had faith, I had faith that those pure and white souls would do good in that new world.
But to my horror, it was quite the opposite.
The once white of their souls, became the darkest of abysses.
So many atrocities caused by them, so many deaths, so much innocence taken away by those animals.
But it didn't stop there, my little brother, pleased by the entertainment of the humans, asked me to grant them some wish.
And they wished to be reincarnated in worlds most similar to the fiction they themselves created.
But this caused the atrocities to double.
Those actions made me lose faith in humanity.
And I knew that human beings are evil from birth.
Because, even if they were good in life, they simply wore a sheep's clothing to hide their true forms.
I'm tired... Tired of people, tired of life.
I wanted to resign, I wanted to get away from this abyss so I could rest in peace.
But... My little brother was no longer the same as before.
Now... It was corrupted by pleasure, violence, hatred and human distrust.
He took my resignation as a rebellion against him, and taking him to Olympus, he was in my hunt.
The hunt didn't last long, since I didn't know that my own little brothers would come to kill me.
When I saw them, I felt happy, I thought they would come to visit me and see how I was.
And among all of them, I could see my beloved.
Persephone was with Zeus, I believed that she would come back to me, I believed that finally the millennia I had waited were worth it just seeing how young and beautiful my beloved looked.
But... My beloved Persephone, shot an arrow into one of my shoulders.
"A disgusting old man wants to rebel against my beloved husband?" Persephone spoke, which left me confused and horrified at the same time.
—What... what do you mean, my love?
But my question fell on deaf ears when another arrow was stuck in one of my hands.
"Never say anything so disgusting again!" she exclaimed, hugging Zeus's torso.
My eyes widened as I realized what had happened.
I felt anger, I felt powerless in the face of it.
So, in a fit of rage, I retrieved my helmet of invisibility, and wanted to put it on to attack my insolent younger brothers.
But... A lightning bolt from Zeus destroyed my old, rusty helmet.
....
"What's wrong, big brother? Aren't you anyone without your poor helmet?" Zeus said, forming a lightning bolt from his hands.
....
That made me even angrier, how dare this foolish younger brother look down on the older one.
"I see you're forgetting who the strongest among the Olympians is!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, generating a jet-black orb in one of my hands.
"Stop him now!" Persephone shouted, knowing full well the power she was summoning.
And at the woman's cry, all the Olympians threw their power at me.
And I... I couldn't be faster than them.
A great explosion erupted and my old, tired body was sent flying to the banks of the River Lethe.
....
The Olympians looked slightly fearful but at the same time happy, since they prevented my power from emerging and thus killing them all.
.....
I... I feel tired.
My eyes slowly close, my old lungs are drawing their last breath, while my heart, does not stop beating in an attempt to keep me alive.
But... I want to die now.
I want to leave this shitty world and finally rest.
I want to sleep.
But in the midst of agony, I heard a few footsteps coming in my direction.
And opening my eyes slightly, I could see my little brother, Zeus.
He approached me with a big smile, proud of his successful hunt.
—Why... why did you do it... sister...
I whispered with my last strength, while I felt my own body slowly turn to ash.
At this, Zeus smiled grimly and whispered in my ear.
—You are a threat that I must suppress to reign in peace.
And without stopping, he spoke again.
—Your cycle ends now...
I was left without the strength to even speak again.
....
Seeing my helplessness, Zeus threw me into the river Lethe as if I were nothing more than a sack of garbage.
And then with my last strength, I could hear.
—From now on, I will control the course of life and death!
.....
I fell into the river Lethe.
As I fell, I could feel my soul being slowly ripped apart and shattered as my memories slowly left me.
But... A warm voice called me from the turbulent waters of the river.
I couldn't recognize the owner of that voice, I simply let myself be guided by it.
...
An eternal abyss of darkness was poured over me.
An almost infinite abyss, but it was different from Tartarus.
This darkness had a light at the end of the path.
At that moment, I... I just walked, I walked towards that little light that, step by step, grew bigger and bigger.
....
Then, I heard screams, I heard loud screams all around me as loud explosions grew in number.
I felt stunned, I felt angry at such a thing.
"Who the hell dares to make that much noise!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, but as I did, something seemed... different.
My voice... sounded younger, more lively.
I raised my head and opened my eyes, then, I could see a huge city in ruins.
It was a very different city from the one I had visited thousands of years ago.
Houses once made of wood and mud were now hundreds of meters taller and made of rock.
I was amazed at this.
And curious, I approached what looked like a huge mirror.
And to my surprise, I didn't see old Hades.
I could see a young man with black hair and reddish eyes.
"What... what is this body?" I whispered to myself, in disbelief at the sight.
My hands flew across every inch of my face.
The skin was no longer wrinkled, dry, or gray. It was youthful skin, the kind I once longed for most.
My mind became confused, my head ached from trying to find some idea, some explanation for this.
But then, understanding came to me
I... had fallen down the River Styx...
—Did I...reincarnate?
My face broke into a huge smile and I felt the fury and youth I once lost.
Then by all the heavens that witness my arrival I shouted.
—Hahahahaha damn bastard brothers thought they could kill me with just that!
But without stopping there, I screamed again.
—I, Hades, God of the Underworld, swear by my name that I will kill each and every one of the gods who dared to try to end my existence!
TO BE CONTINUED.