"Mother!" Poseidon exclaimed, and jumped up. "You're okay."
"We were terribly worried about you," Demeter said as all three of them surrounded her.
"You should not have been," Mother said and wrapped her arms around her children. "There was nothing Cronus could have done to hurt me, save for keeping me imprisoned here."
"Mother," I said, and all four of them turned to face me. "You don't seem awfully surprised to see them all alive and kicking."
"I am only happy that you managed to achieve what you set out to do," she replied.
"You knew they were alive inside that place?" I half-asked, half-accused her.
"I only knew that they were not dead," she replied somberly. "A mother can tell. But I did not know where they were or how to get them out. Your father never shared that with me."
"Yet you did not tell me anything about it," I said, though I knew why she hadn't.
"No, I did not invite you into a spiral of self-destruction," she replied, exactly as I expected. "And as much as you might hate me for it, I have no regrets."
"How could I ever hate you?" I said, and stood up to join my siblings. "The important thing is that we are all safe and free now."
"I think the time is up," Aphrodite said eventually. "There is no way Cronus can return now. It is done."
My mother moved closer to him and knelt in front of his lifeless body.
"You were a great man once," she said. "Brave and just. I only wish that your mind had not slipped down that slope." Then she stood up and moved away from him.
"What are you going to do now, Mother?" Poseidon asked.
But we all paused and looked at the collapsed entrance of the palace as a loud, repetitive rumbling sound echoed from outside. It seemed to get closer and we all rushed to prepare ourselves for battle as best we could. Then the remaining gate of the entrance exploded as a gigantic body lurched in.
Cerberus, with all three of his tongues lolling out, ran straight to Hades and headbutted him, throwing him to the ground.
"Oh, how much I've missed you, boy!" my brother said, as the heads alternated between barking, whining, and licking him.
Cerberus was rolling all over my brother, jumping on him, and lying on him. There was no way my brother would get out of this situation without a few bruised ribs but it looked like he was enjoying himself too much to care.
"We’re all going back to Mount Olympus before sending some of our people back here to restore this place," I said. "Will you join us?"
"I will not," my mother said. At that, even Hades and Cerberus stopped their games.
"But you’re free to go wherever you want," I said. "Why would you stay here?"
"I am not staying here either, Zeus," she replied. "I have been bound to this mountain by your father for centuries. I do not want to simply change mountains. I want to see the Apocosmos. Other pantheons and civilizations."
"I see..." I said. I understood the logic behind her decision perfectly, even if I didn’t like it. "We will be happy to have you visit us anytime you want."
"That I will do," she said. "Now go, claim this place of power as your own before it starts spawning monsters."
"I will," I said, and she started walking away. "Thank you, Mother."
"I am the one who should be thanking you," she said. "Farewell, my loves."
As soon as she turned around the corner outside of the palace, the sound of her footsteps faded. Rhea, the queen of the titans was finally able to leave the prison that Mount Orthys had been for her. As bitter as this moment was for all of us, we were all smiling when our mother disappeared.
"Alright, let's do it and go home, Zeus," Ares said. "Claim this place."
I walked toward the throne with Demeter while Hades and Poseidon wrapped our father's body in a big piece of curtain that had previously hung on the palace walls. I charged my spear with lightning and began striking at the stone throne, with Demeter assisting me. At the same time, Hades and Poseidon lit Cronus's covered body alight, and the smoke started rising into the now almost dark sky. By the time we managed to completely destroy the throne and reveal the guild core, the sun had set completely and the only light around was cast by the dancing funeral flames of the dead titan king.
Then the rocks of the broken throne moved aside and a glowing orb rose out of them. Within its gentle light, I could see the same geometric shapes interchanging with chaotic lines as I had seen when I claimed Olympus. But this one was not as bright as Olympus’s, and it was barely spinning around itself.
I pulled up the divine skill I had to use and realized I wasn’t in a position to do it just yet. We might have to spend the night here after all.
* * *
Name: Establish Divine Domain
Level: 1
Type: Active - Divine
HP Consumed: 0
MP Consumed: 500
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
DP Consumed: 5
Power: -
Range: Melee
Precondition: This skill can only be used at the core of a place of power.
Description: Undergoing the Apotheosis quest has opened a new world of possibilities as a god walking among mortals. Using this skill, a deity can claim a place of power and transform it into their domain, upon which they are able to build their religion.
* * *
Having used all of my DP in the fight with Cronus, I could only hope that my faithful followers would be celebrating my victory and subsequent coronation announcement and that my DP would refill quickly. I wasn’t at all expecting what I saw when I pulled up my DP status window to check.
* * *
Divinity Level: 16 (Minimum 2)
Followers: 73,628 / 75,000
Divinity Points: 16/16
* * *
Not only had my DP completely regenerated, but the number of followers was rising faster than I could even count out loud. It seemed that becoming the king of the Greek pantheon was going to have a great effect on my divinity level.
All this would have to wait though, since my available divinity points meant I could now claim the place of power. I activated my divine skill.
* * *
You are attempting to interact with the Power of Mount Orthys.
Do you want to lay claim to this place of power?
Yes No
* * *
I chose “Yes” and waited for the inevitable fall into darkness that I had experienced when I claimed Olympus. As expected, the ground beneath my feet disappeared and soon I was falling into blackness, until I landed on what felt like thick cotton.
When I picked myself up, I felt a strong breeze rush over my clothes and I tried to gather my surroundings. The breeze eventually became gusts of wind and I realized I was standing on top of a cloud above a mountain. The lighting around me changed to a summer midday, and I could now tell without a doubt that I was looking down at Mount Orthys from above.
Looking at the beautiful place where I’d grown up, I noticed four children playing in the forest on the mountainside. They were chasing each other, jumping from one tree to the other and yelling, having fun. I recognized those voices for they belonged to Demeter, Hades, Poseidon, and myself.
The lighting quickly changed again as clouds gathered around me, hiding the sun and throwing heavy snowflakes at the top of the mountain. As realistic as the weather looked around me, the temperature hadn’t changed for me at all and I could easily make out the four young siblings that were now fighting a monstrous elk, whose body was missing parts of its skin and flesh.
My mind ran back to that winter, when a necromancer had hidden in one of the caves on our mountain and regularly sent out undead beasts to attack our followers. Fighting one monster after another, we eventually managed to reach the person orchestrating these cowardly attacks and take care of him once and for all.
The clouds were blown away, taking with them all the snow they carried and the sky was now lit with thousands of stars. Judging by the colors of the forest under the full moon, I could tell this was one of the warm summer days on top of the mountain. The four siblings were now fully grown, lying on the ground next to each other and looking up at the sky. I couldn’t pinpoint the exact time this had happened, since we did this all the time during summer. We used to go there, to the highest point of the mountain, every time we were all together on Orthys. We would sit, drink, talk, and just appreciate being with each other. These were perhaps the very few moments that we were able to forget about the living hell Cronus had made our lives.
With that thought, my body was catapulted upward and, as I remembered from my time with the core of Mount Olympus, I knew that the process was now finished. This one had been completely different though. There was no simulated fight, or what I’d thought at the time as proving my worth. Rather it had shown me memories that I cherished and that brought a warmth in my heart. It looked like the mountain was trying to remind me of all the good times I’d had on it. Perhaps it didn’t want to go unused for a long period of time, or perhaps it was welcoming me. Either way, I already had big plans for the place I grew up in.
* * *
You have conquered the place of power: Mount Orthys.
Would you like to take control of Mount Orthys now?
Yes No
* * *
I mentally selected "Yes" and was greeted with another notification.
* * *
Congratulations, you have established your Divine Realm: Mount Orthys.
You have unlocked the divine realm upgrades on Mount Orthys.
* * *
Any upgrades of this mountain would have to wait until at least tomorrow though. I yearned to go home and show my siblings the town we had built there. Starting tomorrow, we would be able to send our people here to start constructing and repairing buildings as well as bringing back all the loot that my father had certainly stashed here over the years.
"Let's go home, everyone," I said, once I was sure the place was secured.
"Is your place far?" Demeter said. "Perhaps we should spend the night here."
"Actually, I can teleport back home instantly," I said, and pushed my divine skill to all of them to inspect. "And I can take all of you with me."
* * *
Name: Instant Divine Teleport
Level: 1
Type: Active - Divine
HP Consumed: 0
MP Consumed: 100
DP Consumed: 3
Power: -
Range: 700 inches
Precondition: Not magically silenced
Description: The tether connecting one divine entity to their realm knows no distance. In the flick of an eye, the god Zeus can teleport back to the top of Mount Olympus and away from any danger. More willing individuals may join Zeus in teleporting with him as long as they are within range. The cost for additional targets of this divine skill is 1 DP per person or entity. The tether would work between realms but may have trouble piercing through certain planes with intense anti-magic properties.
* * *
"Well, isn't that just perfect," Hades said. "Count me in."
"Let's go already," Poseidon said, and summoned some water to put out what was left of the funeral pyre.
"Hey, Cerberus can come with, right?" Hades asked, just as I was about to activate the skill.
"If he's willing," I said, and the three-headed monster of a dog made it clear he was by swinging his tail violently from side to side. "Alright then. Let's go."
A cloud of electricity enveloped us and by the time it disappeared, we were standing at the edge of an open field, overlooking the city on top of Olympus. It was obvious from the many bonfires and the smell of grilled meat in the air that construction had ceased for the day.
The mood could only be described as contained excitement, probably as our people were waiting for us to return before starting the celebrations.
"Did you build this whole town while we were gone, Zeus?" Demeter asked, not quite able to believe what she was seeing.
"Not by myself, of course," I said. "Aphrodite and Artemis helped an awful lot. As well as the ludicrous amount of MP that the guild core had amassed in the time before we occupied it."
"Still, the people didn’t come here just because the guild core had a lot of MP," Hades said. "This is a truly marvelous thing."
"And new people are still coming every day, especially since we're in the process of upgrading all of our buildings," Aphrodite told them.
"That is amazing," Poseidon said. "Can we go take a look?"
"Of course you can," I replied. "Why don't you go and explore the city for a while and we’ll meet you all later. I want to introduce you to my people."
"We can start with the fighter's academy that bears my name," Ares suggested. "I want to go there anyway, so we might as well start from there."
"Sounds good to me," Hades agreed.
"You're not joining us now, brother?" Poseidon asked as they started walking away.
"We've got something we need to take care of first," Aphrodite said, and started to pull me away by my hand.
"I bet you do!" I heard my brother break into laughter.
"You're kind of impatient, aren't you?" I joked.
"I've waited long enough," Aphrodite said.