Disclaimer: I don't own anything
Preparations for a Mission and Other Godly Shenanigans
A year later
Wood splinters flew off as the two wooden swords joined in a strike. Both godlings were sweating even wearing only a loincloth over their private areas. Like usually the summer was in full force with Helios blazing down upon the two sons of Kronos. They were now physically and mentally at the age of fourteen and puberty was hitting like a freight train. And the brothers were trying to let out their feelings in nearly hourly spars from sunrise to sunset. The two boys looked like the two deities they were with impeccable muscles rippling at every strike that their swords landed.
Golden ichor from nosebleeds to splinters opening wounds the two brothers relentlessly bashed each other to exhaust themselves which wasn't quite as easy as you would think considering their godly stamina, pain resistance, and their godly food and drink. Their advanced hearing suddenly heard a deity flashing into the vicinity and they immediately stopped and stood shoulder to shoulder looking over the mountains ridges before seeing a woman walking up to them with a placating gesture.
The deity walked up and the two boys and as she neared they could see more details and well they liked what they saw. The Titaness had unblemished skin with long flowing blonde hair she was at 5'7 with long legs which went up under her white flowing khiton. Zeus looked love struck while Perseus barely managed to not react under his stone facade. The result of a whole life with the only contact with their 'mothers' made them unprepared for the beauty of the opposite sex.
While the brothers tried to control themselves the Titaness named Métis the Titaness of good counsel, planning, cunning, and wisdom. Which was quite valuable for a rebellion trying to overthrow a millennia-old rule. She looked inquisitively at the twin brothers the one on the right looked acceptable probably should steel his spine a bit but he would be a good leader. She then turned her attention towards the one on the left, he looked like he too would do good with a little posture teaching but that would happen with time.
The one on the left centered himself and began 'good' Métis thought 'he can't be distracted every time he sees a pretty face' "May I ask for the reason of your visit lady...?" She thought again that this boy had a good head on his shoulders she answered his question "Métis, I am Métis the Titaness of planning, cunning and wisdom" She answered with a gentle smile.
The boy looked to be trying to center himself again before his brother suddenly cut in "Lady Métis" he nodded his head towards her. "Is this something involving mother?" He finished and Métis mentally sighed in relief that he too wasn't controlled by his lower head, too much at least.
"Indeed your mother informs that your father is becoming more and more paranoid and unstable and that we probably have to speed up your education and training" the two children of Rhea looked at each other a little worriedly completely contrasting what they did to each other for not five minutes earlier. "So, how much time do we have left?" Perseus asked. The beautiful Titaness of Wisdom looked thoughtful before answering "well I would say that the faster the better so maybe two decades maximum. But probably before that" Perseus nodded and he did understand, the faster that he and his brother managed to free their siblings the faster they could overthrow their tyrant of a father.
"Let's get going then shall we," Zeus said with his usual flair for dramatics.
—XXX—
A few months later
The two brothers now looked fifteen years old and they were nearing the year where they would become real gods and gain their domains. The education and training after the arrival of Métis focused much more on domains, a god's responsibilities and rulership such as discipline, how to maintain your vassal's loyalty, and such. The sons of Kronos still had their physical training but it was put in the backseat for more diverse skills like intrigue, stewardship, and diplomacy. Perseus was the more attentive student towards the non-domain and non-physical training/education. Well, Zeus was also very attentive but not quite towards the learning material.
When they discussed the different domains they had deduced that Zeus would become a sky deity while Perseus had a connection towards many different domains such as the sun or moon or something like that, he also probably had something to do with night and day, people who gave something for something bigger than themselves, he also had a connection towards the body of their grandmother so they decided he had to be a deity for something along the lines of nature and night and day.
He also felt connected towards mortals and was not happy with their non-existent free will (/AN/ If anyone is confused by this Perseus will explain it later). Perseus was, unfortunately, powerless at this time but he vowed to himself that he would aid or give the mortals their freedom. A surge of power expanded out from his godly power at this sacred vow that he had agreed to.
His 'Mothers were still same old same old fussing over him and his brother about all things. Though Perseus appreciated this even if he maintained an embarrassed facade when they did it his brother didn't appreciate as much trying to tell them that he was too old for such actions. After Métis arrived in the secluded cave Perseus noted that Zeus became more distant towards everyone besides Perseus and Métis herself and even then he had begun to be more and more with Métis than Perseus and he felt annoyed that his twin brother ignored him in such a way so he decided that if Zeus would ignore then Perseus would pay back with the same coin.
Perseus hurried out of the cave early one morning. There was still moisture in the ground after the night and Helios was just peaking over the horizon, but the godling ignored this and continued down a small goat trail which swung downhill to the little village at the foot of Mount Ida. He felt like he had small ants crawling over his skin at the thought of all the mortals enslaved by his father.
He arrived at the edge of the village and he continued his brisk walk to the center of the village where he sat down and waited. While he was waiting his thoughts once again strayed to the mortals. The mortals or humans were a fragile version of the deities that inhabited the lands of Hellas, Sicily, Macedon, Thrace, and Anatolia. Well, that wasn't true, it was more of the opposite way with the deities having a form that could be preceded by mortals.
And contrary to popular belief the mortals that were believers of the Greek pantheon had a unique amount of power over deities or at least how they were perceived, their domains and even their personality or at least a part of a deity's personality so for example if lots of people believed me, as in Perseus in a way then I would gain a version of myself that was closer towards their beliefs called an epithet. An epithet could even be mistaken for a separate deity then that would happen so it was important for deities to reign in and centralize the beliefs into best-case scenario one deity but that was hard so the best one could hope for was a few epithets that closely resembled the original deity.
While the Titans didn't have this problem considering their iron rule of the mortals, other deities that didn't plan to become tyrants would have to watch out for that. Anyway I got off track, the creator of mortals the Titan Prometheus well that wasn't true technically but he was more or less a deity focused upon mortals and more specifically what chaos... they could make. The mortals were just a normal species upon Gaia before Prometheus' sister-in-law opened a box of all of humankind's horrors and bad aspects.
After that incident Kronos decided to enslave and terrorize them so they would become loyal and just following the flow, but the damage was done and the only thing left in Pandora's Box was Elpis or hope which could only be released by the humans themselves. But anyway Kronos was unsuccessful in his quenching of the discord that was the new humans because with emotions such as pride, lust, and greed the mortals began to disregard the Titans rule. Which was quickly quenched with enslavement, the problem wasn't fixed by a long shot but it was the best the Titans had managed to come up with.
But the mortals' feelings stowed and churned in their small hearts and their perception of Kronos made him to what he was now, a mad tyrant who became more and more unhinged every day. Perseus shook his head, disappointment apparent in his facial features, to him the solution was obvious but it was too late now for the Titans because while they had been good rulers in the past, that was not true anymore. While there were still good and stable Titans left they were, unfortunately, fewer every year.
Helios was now firmly upon the sky and was blazing with his usual summer glory. There were more and more mortals beginning to walk around and soon a crowd of fifty villagers strong stood and looked at the man? Deity? Something like that, sitting in the middle of the village just waiting for something. Now don't confuse the mortals' enslavement as a physical thing, quite opposite it was purely spiritually. But it wasn't foolproof by a large margin so that is what the godling was going to test today, hopefully, unnoticed but he wasn't going to bet everything on one horse so he was prepared to leave if things went south.
Finally, the deity felt the last villagers arriving. He opened his eyes and a dozen gasps erupted through the crowd at the sight of his unique eyes. Perseus practically oozed with godly energy. He was careful to flare his aura too much so as not to incinerate the mortals in front of him.
He felt the presence of at least three other deities and not minor either surrounding him. He didn't show any physical changes at the revelation but mentally his alarms were blaring and he searched the nearest mile for any godly presence trying to figure out where these three deities were. But the only thing he picked up was his two 'moms' and Zeus and Métis suspiciously close considering that he and his brother were currently free for any duties/education, but he decided to ignore it for now. He frowned at the lack of deities in his presence because he could have sworn that he felt something but, he quickly made his facial expression neutral again he decided to turn his attention back to the mortals again.
He looked inquisitively at the crowd before raising to his feet. He stood at a 6'4 so he towered over the villagers while he only looked like he was about sixteen a very big sixteen-year-old mind you but still only at sixteen years of age even if his age wasn't very impressive his aura and stature made up for that and when he stood up he got the attention of everyone present.
He began in a strong baritone voice that didn't belong to a sixteen-year-old at least not a mortal of which he wasn't but the other mortals didn't know about that. "Mortals! I have come to free you from my father's tyranny!" He bellowed and the reception was better than he could have ever hoped for. The mortals were silent for a second before exploding into cheers.
A man at the front suddenly dropped to his knee in front of him and the rest followed suit. "Please, milord free us from our enslavement. The Titan King's tyranny has infested humankind like a plague" The rest of the villagers finished with a collective "Please, we will do anything, free us from this plague".
Now you may think that such a mass rebellion against their masters would be noticed by the Titans but no with Kronos' madness increase every year he was less and less in any kind of conscious status so this mass defection went largely unnoticed by any deities except for a few deities who didn't want to interfere in this historic event. "Perseus is my name, remember that if you ever need help you need only pray to me and I would try with all my power to help you," He said with a kind voice.
Perseus nodded towards them and his godly power which had until now been sparkling around him waiting for an outlet, gleefully surged forward and enveloped the small village. Perseus suddenly began to chant in a language long forgotten by the current rulers of the Greek world. He continued like that for maybe an hour making it nearly noon when his chanting stopped and he fell to his knees in exhaustion under the strong heat that came from Helios.
Perseus finally raised himself to his feet again and was met with a couple of dozen eyes shining with worship towards their...God. He began with his request for his payment for his service towards these mortals "You shall build a temple in my honor which will always be under my protection and if you should ever need my attention you need only visit there" The mortals nodded understanding and completely fine with the simple request. "I shall give all of you a small blessing as my first worshipers" They quickly lined up in front of the deity and were blessed one by one until Perseus was done.
Perseus started again after he was finished "Now you must be curious about what my blessing entails right?" They nodded and Perseus continued "Well you will be faster, stronger, and more durable than a normal mortal because of the godly essence you now harbor. You will live longer, you will be very resistant towards diseases but you can die as easily in battle, your children and their descendants will also inherit my blessing so it will take a lot to kill you and your families. Unfortunately, this is the strongest blessing I can give you without making you demigods and that would be a very painful experience for you so this is all I can give you". The villagers were very honored by being picked out by their now patron god and set out to start construction of a temple in Perseus' honor.
Perseus' only input was turning down the more ostensive details and had them design a sturdy stone temple leaning against the foot of Mount Ida which was the birth of the first temple of Perseus. Perseus decided to further help them out by blessing their fields with fertility and lessening the crop failures and crop output. After a couple of months, the temple finished and the time had come to pick out the temple's head priest. He decided to choose the man that first kneeled to him who was named Alchymedes.
While had been working out his shenanigans down in the village, more personal developments happened between his brother and teacher which ended in the two becoming lovers, which was a little awkward during lessons considering the working relationship was shot and destroyed with Zeus having difficulties in focusing on the lessons themselves.
Considering the two different paths the brothers had taken it was no wonder that there came disagreements and the twin's bond had never been weaker between them. Such as now "I don't understand what you see in her? You should focus more on the rescue of our siblings than your love life, that's just selfish" Perseus said exasperation directed towards his younger twin. They were now seventeen years old physically and mentally so it was only a couple of months before they were going to be old enough for their domains. And while they were mentally and physically seventeen years old, they had still only lived for about 7 years but the advanced aging of godlings which was different for every godling helped in that regard.
"Like you're any better playing with your little toy soldiers down in your little village, you are so hypocritical Perseus!" Zeus said angrily. "That is not true! I am building up a power base for the future war" Perseus's temper blowing up. "Ahh yes of course, like having a little stone shack is going to help us win the war". Zeus replied sarcastically. "It is going to help" Perseus stomped his foot like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum. "The more followers, the more prayers and power I will get from my worshipers, and when we win I will have a whole village of loyal mortals at my command". Zeus couldn't say anything against that logic so he just frowned and began to ignore his brother.
Suddenly Métis flashed in effectively stopping the disagreement. She looked unusually serious and gestured them to hold their mouths. She was silently just staring intensely at the brothers before finally beginning. "It's time". A simple two-word sentence stopped both godlings in their tracks, taking a couple of minutes for their brains to comprehend the simple sentence. Métis continued undeterred by the brain computing of the two godlings. "Not yet but in about a month will be a window of opportunity we cannot miss if we want to save your siblings in the cleanest way possible".
"So prepare yourselves and as of now all education, training, and playtime are suspended so the only thing we shall be doing before the mission is planning and some combat scenarios, understood!" The Titaness said firmly. The twin sons of Kronos gulped before replying "Yes ma'am" Métis nodded and went off to do whatever she did when she wasn't with Zeus or teaching the brothers.
—XXX—
A couple of days later
Five beings were present around a cypress wood table in the slightly chilly cave planning an event that would become legendary. You had the two nymphs of the mountain who were there only because they could give a different perspective to the plan, Métis of course, Zeus, Perseus, and Rhea though was there only mentally via her mental connection towards her children so she could only get information from them, and they had to repeat her suggestions to the whole group.
Suddenly during the meeting, Perseus got an epiphany and mentally relaid it to his mother who sent a burst of pride and acceptance for the idea. He coughed politely and raised his hand while the others were debating over the logistical nightmare that was trying to figure out how to smuggle in things and get those things in the first place. They stopped when he coughed and Métis raised one eyebrow gesturing to her unspoken question.
"Well, as fun as logistics are, I think it would be smart to have some armor at for the mission, and with my patronage of a village, some leather would probably not be so hard to get," Perseus said calmly completely hiding his pride at this critical question, at least that is what he thinks anyway. Because while the two brothers had very different personalities and priorities the thing they both had in common was their pride and while Perseus didn't show that too much visually he and his brother had pretty big heads.
"But what would we need mortal leather for? It's practically unnoticeable in a fight with our strength" Zeus asked astonished at the suggestion. "Well, brother I was thinking after we got the leather that we could meet someone on our way back, well more like they meeting us but that's details..." Métis at least began to understand my reasoning and was warming up to the idea while the other participants had no input at this point. "Well, it wouldn't hurt to try?" Métis said and I nearly laughed at the absurd statement because it could become a real clusterfuck considering who we would be dealing with but, fingers crossed...
End of Chapter
Well, I don't have much to say for this author's note other than to thank you for reading yet another chapter and I hope that you can enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing this story. PM me if there is anything that you want to have to explained concerning the story and have a lovely day, or night if you do read this then. And lastly, I will publish these two first chapters before trying to publish two chapters every two weeks.